


Arachnophobia

by NotZiz



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow, The Gods Are Bastards - D. D. Webb
Genre: Crossover, Slice of Life, Therapy through Magic, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2020-07-30 17:35:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 31,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20101039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotZiz/pseuds/NotZiz
Summary: The final fight is over. Scion lays defeated and humanity survives Gold Morning. Taylor accepts her final verdict from Contessa, but instead of dying like she expects, she wakes up in a new world. A strange world. A world where the gods are most certainly real, and they're bastards. Taylor finds herself in the newly minted Class 1182 at the start of their semester. Her classmates are unusual, even for their reality. Two paladins, a half-demon, a dryad, a pixie, a bard, a pirate princess, and a drow. How will her studies go at the Unseen University? Will she make friends, enemies, or more likely a bit of both? Will she ever find her way up to the Pantheon to interrogate the gods on how she arrived and how to get home? Will she find therapy through magic, adventure, and a whole lot of banter?Special Thanks to HorizonTheTransient for making a handy tool to let me easily import my chapters onto AO3





	1. Prologue

# 

Arachnophobia

### Prologue

  
  
“Oh no,” Vesk moaned out, looking at the frame of perfectly made metal as it sparked, the rectangular space enclosed by it sparking with energy. That door was most certainly never, ever supposed to be activated. Which, of course, was the reason why that particular door was the one currently brimming with malevolent energies that even he was cautious of.  
  
And he was a god.  
  
“Think Vesk! That doorway connects to a tier four grimdark universe. Nothing good can possibly be coming through,” he narrated aloud, pacing frantically at the end of the hallway. The solution was obvious: he ought to call the Pantheon immediately. What came through could be a threat on par with an Elder God. The possible damage was limitless, his own safety compromised. He had collected the gateways precisely to stop this from happening. The leftover creations of the Elder Gods, the gateways connected to alternate realities where some of their favorite stories were real. They had also used them for practical purposes, such as stealing technology they were too lazy to innovate themselves. The blind fools.  
  
Their disgusting hubris had been of unimaginable scope for the absolutely wasteful ends. Creating technology that just by existing created a risk of being invaded by beings of similar power just so they could watch and rewatch their favorite stories time and again for eon after eon. That was why he had kept them. As a reminder.  
  
Yet he really, really didn’t want to spend the next few centuries having Avei and Omnu lord it over him after he had argued so passionately for containing them this way. Assuming they survived, that was. But why plan for being dead?  
  
He instead called one of the most powerful and least likely to rat him out members of the Pantheon.  
  
“Hey Vem? Buddy, I’ve got this very strange space-time interaction going on over here and I was wondering if you could take a look at it. You get this stuff better than I do, you know?”  
  
“Did you really just try to brush me off with ‘not enough time’?”  
  
“Well yes, and I said I was sorry, but admit it, frankly it worked out great and the history books are much more entertaining for it.”  
  
“No I don’t think it’s stable at all. I’d really prefer you come now.”  
  
As the words left his mouth he felt the telltale presence of another of the Pantheon requesting access to his space. Not that any of them really needed to or had to, but it was the polite thing to do. He slapped the approval aside and Vemnesthis appeared next to him.  
  
“Oh my. I don’t think that is normal function for one of the doorways,” Vemnesthis said placidly.  
  
Vesk stared at him. “You think?”  
  
“It appears to be being accessed from the other side, but not by the proper protocols. Like something is fumbling around trying to blindly fit a key into a latch,” the god of time replied.  
  
Vesk, god of bards and not god of transcension field mechanics, grimaced at the idea. The crackling energies filling the doorframe jumped back and forth, nearly extinguished in one moment to raging full the next and back again. It was impossible, for him at least, to predict whether they were moments away from a successful connection or if the intruder was ready to give up.  
  
He sighed. “I don’t suppose you have any ideas that don’t involve battle stations?”  
  
Vemnesthis shook his head slowly. “I’m afraid not, my friend. If I tamper with it I’m worried I’m just as likely to help the connection than stop it.”  
  
Vesk spat bitterly, “Those fuckers would have found yet another way to ruin my day after being dead for millenia.”  
  
There was nothing for it. He would take dealing with the others being annoying smug for a few centuries over repeating the mistakes of the people he hated the most. Even eight thousand years had only done so much to cool him down.  
  
“Right. Can you at least prepare a variable temporal dilation field for whatever might come through and I’ll call everyone els-”  
  
His words cut off by a flash of light and the disarmingly happy chime from the doorway indicating a successful connection. The dimensional gateway shone with a light that shimmered, seemingly both drawing light and casting shadow at the same time. Through the gateway was tossed a young woman, covered in white panels of armor that were nearly sloughing off of her from the abuse they had absorbed. Her right arm was missing from the elbow down and she had two holes in her head.  
  
“What the fuck,” exclaimed Vesk in a nearly hysterical tone as he reeled back.  
  
“That’s...someone has thrown a dead girl at us,” Vemnesthis concluded, faltering.  
  
The portal crackled and spat again as it turned off, the chime playing once more as the light at the panel turned back to the red of inactivity.  
  
“She’s not dead. Not yet at least. But she’s got a thingy,” Vesk said, side-eyeing the girl with growing nausea.  
  
Vemnesthis nodded, his usually implacable self hesitating. “She has both physical brain trauma and extensive metaphysical trauma. Some sort of transdimensional parasitic attachment which has been partially damaged by the aforementioned tissue trauma. Most...unorthodox.”  
  
“Who even does that? They tried to shoot an interdimensional parasite out of her brain? How is that supposed to work?” Vesk looked down at the unmoving figure. “Shit.”  
  
A tragic figure from an alternate reality thrown at his feet on death’s door? They could’ve at least given him a choice and taken him out for dinner first.  
  
“We oughta patch her up. Brain surgery with a gun is about the most imprecise thing in the universe. Look, the parasite isn’t even properly severed. Vem, can you handle this?” Vesk looked to his colleague.  
  
Vemnesthis stroked his beard, his lips pursed in thought. “I can’t roll her back, we have no data on how she was before, but I can use modeling to make a guess and reverse the damage based on that. I’m wary of touching that parasite that’s still hooked into her, however.”  
  
The god of bards and stories chewed on his lip as the girl continued to bleed on his previously perfectly good floor. His gateway exposition room was going to need a thorough sanitizing.  
  
“Can we just, you know, do some partial blocks on it? It's already got a damaged connection. As long as we can ensure that the host on the other side can’t see where the link goes, it should be safe for the moment. I’d open the gate to check if they killed Scion properly in this timeline, but frankly I’d want Eserion here if we’re going to test our luck that much.”  
  
Vemnesthis nodded in agreement. No motion was visible, or even needed, as he worked to repair the damage to the girl in front of them. Usually restoring brain damage would be as simple as reversing the subject’s personal time stream until it was gone, but she had taken the damage outside of their transcension fields. They had no access to anything of her from more than a minute ago without re-opening the gate.  
  
It was quick work, even as complicated as brain surgery was, for when gods worked it was either possible or not most of the time. She was left largely unchanged, except the horrendous amount of brain damage was reduced, albeit not entirely fixed and modeled roughly on how the rest of her brain looked at the moment. The connection between her and her parasite had been trimmed and adjusted, pared down to something unable to lead an interloper to their world.  
  
Vemnesthis looked to Vesk, as Vesk looked back to Vemnesthis.  
  
What were they to do with her now?  
  
  


\---

  
  
Arachne Tellwyrn shook a fist at the disappearing back of the two gods, shouting, “This isn’t an orphanage! Come back here before I make you come back here!”  
  
Professor Yornhaldt adjusted his spectacles, chewing thoughtfully on his tongue.  
  
“What do you plan to do with her Arachne?”  
  
She turned, shooting him a venomous look. “Do? What I ought to do is dump her on the Pantheon’s doorstep seeing as she is _not my problem_.”  
  
He exhaled long and heavily. “Aye. But that would just end up putting a clearly vulnerable girl in the hands of the gods who just as likely are responsible for her ending up like this in the first place.”  
  
She glared down at him over the edge of her gold-rimmed spectacles. “I know that Alaric, I’m not an idiot. It’s clear what Vesk wants me to do, which is why I’m more than half inclined not to just out of principle. However, I can’t deny that despite his usual inane antics he does occasionally have good ideas.”  
  
“Meaning?” Alaric asked, half knowing the answer, but knowing Arachne would appreciate the easy lead in.  
  
“Well, this year’s class is a bit small. Tell Janis she’ll need to get one more bed ready I suppose. We appear to have a last addition to class 1182.” 


	2. Chapter 1

### Chapter 1

  
  
I woke up disoriented. I couldn’t place where I was, where I should’ve been, or what had happened last. My memory was, well not fuzzy exactly, but a jumbled mess. Images and scenes out of order, with emotions missing from one and present in the next. We had been losing, steadily falling apart. Scion had been taking out what capes we’d managed to assemble and our forces had been fracturing. I had asked Panacea to de-regulate me, break down my walls. Everything after that was where it got messed up. I had memories of everyone working together, of being scared and surrounded, of striking at Scion.  
  
Did we win? Did anyone survive?  
  
I reached for my powers instinctively and immediately was rewarded with a splitting headache. The pain was both there, but also intangible in a strange way. The closest thing I had to it was like a phantom pain, a sensation I had heard amputees got. My power felt like it was partially missing. I couldn’t reach out and find any bugs, but there was still something there. Some sort of partial interference then, perhaps. Worrying. There must be a power nullifier around or I had been hit with a type of Trump power perhaps.  
  
I pushed myself to sit up, propping myself up with my arm only for it to slip and send me flopping back into soft pillows. Right, my right arm had been mangled and amputated. I pushed myself up again, a little less steady using my off-hand and looked around the room. It reminded me of the nurses’ station at a high school. A bit off, with stone walls that more fit my mental picture of European style buildings, but the same undeniable atmosphere. Soft beds separated by cool colored curtains, a desk with a medicine cabinet above it, mirrors to help give the room a bit more space, and plenty of windows for light.  
  
“Finally awake I see. Well, let me be the first, and likely the last, to congratulate you on your acceptance to the University.”  
  
I startled slightly at the interruption, turning my head to look at the source. A woman stood leaning against the door frame with her arms folded. Tall, with long blonde hair, her sense of fashion an eclectic mix of pre-modern styles. Trousers that could’ve come from any movie set before the 1930s, a blouse with a forest green vest that seemed closer to modern styles, but was clearly made of handwoven fabrics. Gold rimmed spectacles that sat on her face, certainly the stylings of a stern dean or principal.  
  
I spoke warily, my throat felt scratchy and raw, “W-where am I? What happened to S-scion?”  
  
The woman shrugged, “Last Rock, though I think the name won’t mean anything to you. As for your questions, I think only the gods have the answers you seek, for which I am sincerely sympathetic to your plight. It's not a fun position to be in.”  
  
I thought to speak, but closed my mouth after a moment. Only with a few breaths passed did I try to speak again, “Explain.”  
  
She snorted at that. “You think I enjoy playing the run around with you? Actually, don’t answer that. It’s true that I’ve done it a few times. No. The fact of the matter is that you were dumped on my doorstep half-dead with no explanation. It’s not that I don’t want to explain, it’s that I honestly have little idea of who you are or what may have happened.”  
  
That...was surprisingly straight forward. I wanted to approach her cautiously, to work out where I was, who might’ve dumped me so far from my contacts and allies. I needed to know if we had won or if Scion was still out there. It was difficult to think straight, to put my thoughts and feelings into words. It felt like back when I’d had a concussion, like my brain was confused and unsettled.  
  
“I’ll answer what I can, seeing as far as I can tell, you are wholly a victim in this,” she said with exasperation and a not small amount of sympathy. “You were brought to me by the god Vemnesthis, who is an unusually reclusive and quiet yet amazingly misguided bastard, comatose. He said you’d likely make the kind of student I typically accept and then, as is entirely typical of a being who has been largely unchallenged for eight millenia, left you here with no actual thought put into his actions.”  
  
She continued, her annoyed tone softening as she shifted topic. “Naturally I examined you and found a number of unusual features. Materials that are beyond the manufacturing capability of any nation currently. Substantial injuries taken recently, indicating some sort of significant struggle. A whole lot of fuckery going on around you in another plane that’s clearly been tampered with on a divine level and which I will be picking apart at a later date. So, while I am inclined to be reasonably sympathetic to your situation, you are not the only one with questions. It’s not often I have what I suspect is a dimensional refugee on my campus.”  
  
I grimaced, a mix of physical and mental pain hitting me. She had explained, in a way, and if she was telling the truth then she was just as confused as I was. A dimensional refugee, she had said. It would explain the small differences in how things were built, in the clothing, in the unfamiliar medicine bottles. The apparent casual existence of gods. An Earth furthered diverged than even Gimel or Aleph, perhaps? One that had clearly been overlooked by Scion so far, judging by the way it wasn’t exploding. Was it really that simple? Scion _had_ been dimension hopping and the barriers between worlds had been broken through repeatedly during the fights.  
  
“I’m...Weaver. We were fighting Scion. He was, is...not a god, but you can think of him like one. We don’t have gods, but he has access to powers that dwarf anything we could make. We were trying to kill him when whatever happened, happened.” I swallowed heavily, feeling oddly out of practice speaking. “He could still be out there. I don’t know. That’s why I need to find out what’s going on.”  
  
I tried to get a sense of her reaction, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of her face. It reminded me vaguely of Nice Guy, how my vision had some sort of filter over it that was altering her features, making them impossible to put together into a coherent picture. There was no emotional effect. I immediately tested trying to feel hostile, friendly, or untrusting of the woman and none of my efforts ran into resistance. I imagined shooting her and found no difficulty there. Was she a Stranger of some type, protecting her identity?  
  
She folded her arms, tapping her foot in thought. “Interesting. I’m afraid there’s no easy way back for you, however. Perhaps if you can draw the attention of the Pantheon again, you might be able to negotiate a return. No mage could work with such imprecise information however, not without spending a significant number of years on it.”  
  
I tensed, about to speak when she continued on. “That said, you’re quite safe here. This Scion fellow won’t bother you here, nor will anyone else for that matter. I already mentioned, but you have my official invitation to attend the University here with our incoming freshman class. While a student here, you live in a realm already flush with gods who aren’t particularly fond of free market competition, and more importantly, myself.”  
  
I wasn't sure how much I bought that explanation. Not much.  
  
“And who are you?” I asked slowly.  
  
She paused. “Huh, I suppose I never did introduce myself. I’m Professor Tellwyrn and I run this campus. Sadly, the effect of such a reveal is utterly wasted on you, but let me assure you this would be quite the moment for anyone else. You are at the pinnacle center of learning on the continent, with an offer of room and board until you finish your studies. I understand it may not be what you want right this moment, but do consider it before you rush headlong into a world you don’t understand on the back of grievous bodily injury and with no resources.”  
  
I glared at her.  
  
She exhaled hard, pinching her temples between the finger and thumb of one hand. I couldn’t process her face any better, yet somehow she managed to convey an absolute sense of disappointment. “You’ve done exactly that before, haven’t you?”  
  
I wasn’t going to answer that one.  
  
“Right, I’ll send Janis around later and if you haven’t run off by then, she’ll show you to your room. If you have, do remember this moment when you realize how woefully unprepared you are.”  
  
With that she disappeared without fanfare, no motion or sound, just suddenly not there before I could ask one of the dozens of questions still on my mind. Leaving me to my thoughts and to figure out what the hell I was going to do. I couldn’t just drop everything and start going to some weird foreign college. Could I? What happened to my powers? Were my friends okay, or even alive? Was Scion still out there? What was this university? Were there really gods here? Why was this woman so apparently impressive? Was this all just some sort of Master power or illusion?  
  
And lastly, lagging behind the busy parade of questions: did she just teleport?  
  
  



	3. Chapter 2

### Chapter 2

  
  
“Girls! Sorry for making you all gather on such short notice, but you’ve got a last minute addition to your little group,” the elderly woman called out as she lead the two of us into the tower. I was profoundly disturbed by the fact that it was floating over the edge of the mountain, having only trundled across it after a great deal of prodding from Janis. This entire venture sat poorly with me and a floating tower had not helped matters.  
  
“For real? We already have like one, two...at least three people with unexplained mysterious backgrounds. Isn’t another kind of over doing it?” The girl speaking was dark-skinned, dressed in a great coat with a dozen pockets over top a loose blouse and a pair of beige trousers held up with a sash.  
  
“Ruda, don’t harass the new girl before we’ve even met her. Hi, I’m Fross!” said a small ball of glittering energy that gave off a blue-ish light.  
  
I stared at what I supposed was Fross, a bit dumb-founded. A ball of light wa speaking at me. Politely so, evenly. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. My head had the dull throb of a headache pounding away in the background and my limbs, what ones remained, felt sluggish. On top of all of that, seeing a talking ball of light was just...eh. I could deal with it later as long as it didn’t try to bother me.  
  
The old reflexes to awkwardly wave and make myself small roused in the back of my mind at the memories of school, but I had moved past that. I was a different person than the girl who had cowered and endured at Winslow. I treated it like I was meeting a new team who I might be with for a bit. A strange, strange new team.  
  
Straight back, eyes forward, gestures brisk and with purpose. Convey strength, confidence. A mixture of respect and perhaps a bit of fear, whatever was necessary to make things work.  
  
“Hello. I’m Weaver,” I answered, giving a short wave with my left hand.  
  
“Where’s your luggage?” Asked a girl with short hair, dressed in slacks with what had to be a personally tailored jacket from the fit.  
  
I hadn’t really decided on how I was going to explain myself when questions inevitably came up. Not when I didn’t understand what had happened myself. The easiest option was to tell the truth and just keep it short.  
  
“I don’t have any,” I replied, giving a noncommittal shrug.  
  
“Overdoing it…” murmured the dark-skinned girl, Ruda I thought, from the couch.  
  
“Oh, uhm..” the short-haired girl said, tapering off.  
  
“Welcome to Clarke Tower,” said a polite-sounding girl who was even darker skinned than Ruda, nearly black to the point I didn’t think I had ever seen someone’s skin so dark. I wasn’t sure if she was an oddity like Fross or _wow that could come off as racist if she’s just really dark_. I decided to abandon that line of thought. Her build was far more slight than Ruda’s however, tall and narrow where Ruda was shorter and more broad.  
  
Another stood up, walking over and offering her hand. “Nice to meet you Weaver. I’m Trissiny.”  
  
I reached out, offering my left to her right and watching as she quickly switched hands as she realized. Her grip was firm, but not crushing. It reminded me of Brian or some of the Brutes who had a casual confidence in their strength. Someone with training and awareness, who didn't feel like crushing a teenage girl's hand was a valuable show of strength.  
  
“Ah, sorry about that,” she offered, bobbing her head down to the side of my stump.  
  
I gave another shrug. “It happens. I’m still getting used to it myself.”  
  
She faced me, staring for a moment like I was supposed to get something from her. Her face was doing the same thing Tellwyrn’s had done. I couldn’t piece it together. So far it had happened for everyone I had met or seen on my walk across the campus. Either there was a Stranger power working on every face I saw or something else was going on. I really needed to figure that out, but it was mixed in a list of a dozen other urgent things I needed to know before I could act. I was broken from my ruminating by her prompting.  
  
“What happened?”  
  
“Omnu’s balls, you can’t just ask people why they’re missing an arm,” groaned Ruda.  
  
I drew a sharp breath in. How would you even begin explaining how I lost my arm? I was fighting the closest thing to a god when a woman made out of tentacles had lost control and nearly torn my arm off and then a dragon-man had cauterized the remainder after I pissed him off even more?  
  
I opted for short and sweet again. “I took a bad hit in a fight from someone who lost control. It’s complicated.”  
  
Trissiny seemed to hesitate at that. It was frustrating that I couldn’t read her face to see how she, or the others, reacted to me. I wanted to use my bugs to try and see if they could work around the effect, but my powers had been unresponsive since waking. Just that vague phantom pain in the top of my skull. Another problem to investigate.  
  
Janis stepped forward, not quite placing herself between us, but certainly intruding on our personal space.  
  
“Now! I don’t want to interrupt you girls getting to know each other, but there’ll be plenty of time for that,” she said, sounding far more cheerful than I thought any college dorm keeper had a right to be. Maybe college really was that different here. “I do apologize for this dears, but Weaver here will need a room. Shaeine, Fross, would you two be alright with her rooming with you? I’m afraid it’ll be a bit tight on space.”  
  
“Absolutely. I have no issues with it,” answered the one I could now pin as Shaeine.  
  
“Oh! That’s fine, I don’t use much of my space anyway. She can have my bed actually, I don’t really sleep on it, since I don’t sleep.”  
  
Janis clicked her tongue. “Oh no dear. You need your own space as well, no matter how small you are! Just give me a few minutes and I’ll get a bunk bed in there. Would that work for the both of you?” She looked between Fross and myself.  
  
We gave our consent and she disappeared up the stairs. I was mildly curious how she intended to get a bunk bed moved into one of the rooms above us, given the narrowness of the tower and the size of a bed, but I figured the explanation was probably magic, just like the Tower supposedly. Likely their version of powers, if they were a distant Earth like I had considered. Regardless, I was hardly in any shape to be of much help. Even if I hadn’t lost an arm, I was still uneasy on my legs. The fatigue of the last few days had caught up and hit me hard, my body protesting each and every extra movement.  
  
I sat down in one of the chairs, looking down at the rather bland clothing I had woken up in. I needed to ask Tellwyrn where my armor had gone, once I tracked her down. Frankly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had simply fallen apart, considering what it been through. Still, best to keep what little I had with me.  
  
Ruda gave a wave from the couch. “I’m Zaruda, glorious princess of the Punjabi and one of the most badass pirates this side of the continent-”  
  
A pirate princess? Yet another piece of weird bullshit to work with. There was so much to process and I was out of element. I kept wanting to reach for my powers and was only getting a growing headache instead. My focus faltered as she continued her long spiel of an introduction, my eyes growing heavy and…  
  
“Is she dead?”  
“No, I can still sense life in her.”  
“Let Trissiny work! She needs room, stop crowding her.”  
“No offense, but our resident do-gooder seems more the stabby type than the healy type.”  
“Divine magic is one of the best emergency medical treatments in the world, save for an actual specialist being on hand.”  
“Alright, alright, hey did she just move?”  
  
My eyes snapped open and I reflexively rolled away from the unfamiliar mish-mash of features above me. The girl raised her hands to the side of her head, showing she meant no harm. I reached for my belt, feeling for my baton, but it wasn’t there and…  
  
I wasn’t on Bet. I was in Clarke Tower. The girl in front of me had blonde hair, her name was Trissiny. I wasn’t safe, but I wasn’t being attacked.  
  
I measured my breathing, taking control of it to stop my adrenaline fuelled gasps. I could feel my heart still racing in my chest, still getting up to speed as my body woke up in stages. I couldn’t make sense of their faces, but I could tell everyone was staring at me as I slowly propped myself up. I was on the floor, next to where I had taken a seat.  
  
“Are you okay?” The short haired girl asked from over Trissiny’s shoulder.  
  
“I’m fine,” I answered reflexively.  
  
I could practically hear the frown from Trissiny as she retorted, “People who are fine don’t simply pass out.”  
  
I pushed myself slowly to my feet, steadying myself by reaching out for the chair next to me. “I’m fine,” I insisted. “Just more tired than I thought I was.”  
  
“I mean, you’re really not. I’m not great with humans yet, but even I can tell you’re really hurt. Honestly I’m kindof amazed, I didn’t think humans could survive that much. They always seemed so squishy,” added one of the girls I hadn’t been introduced to yet. Her figure was nearly ridiculous, curvy in ways that didn’t usually exist outside of magazines and with a head of long green hair.  
  
Everyone but Fross turned to look at Juniper.  
  
“Why would Tellwyrn send her here if she’s that badly off?” Shaeine asked quietly to herself.  
  
“Did you not see that woman today? Reveling in sadism seems perfectly in character for her,” Ruda replied.  
  
Trissiny turned back, definitely staring at me. I pushed myself away from the chair, standing without support and dragging myself over to the stairs. I knew I looked badly off at the moment, but I just couldn’t deal with any more. I was in pieces and I needed a break. I needed to organize my thoughts, I needed to rest my body. I needed time without all of this insanity and inanity.  
  
“I need some sleep. Don’t worry about me,” I said offhandedly to get them off my back. I ascended the stairs nearly silently, the carpeted steps a soft luxury underneath my feet. Despite being a stone tower that reminded me from the outside of some sort of castle tower, the inside was actually quite comfortable. Plush furniture with carpeted surfaces abound. I passed Janis on the way up, quickly muttering something about needing sleep before finding my temporary lodgings. I had been ill at ease with resting under what might be an active Stranger effect, but the view off the mountain earlier hadn’t left me many options. I was worn down to the bone, my thoughts failing to organize into anything useful. After some rest I could consider my options.  
  
The moment my head hit the pillow on the lower bunk sleep overtook me.  
  
  



	4. Chapter 3

### Chapter 3

  
  
I found myself walking at the back of the group as we headed to their Tuesday morning class. It had only been Shaeine’s gentle but firm insistence this morning that had gotten me out of bed. Somehow sleep had only made everything hurt more, rather than less. My arm was throbbing in places that didn’t even exist anymore and my head felt like someone had taken a hammer to it. Still, my thoughts were a bit clearer, my mind a bit sharper. The fog from yesterday wasn’t gone, but it felt like it was slowly lifting.  
  
That was good, because I could only spend so much time recovering before I needed to decide on a course of action.  
  
The group was a few feet ahead of me, with Tobias and Shaeine at the back. I had been quickly introduced to the two boys of the class as we had met up with them on the way to class. Toby, or Tobias Caine, was apparently a paladin of Omnu, whoever that was. He certainly wasn’t how I imagined a paladin, he was a lot more soft-spoken and a lot less dressed in plate armor. Gabriel, the other boy, was apparently just...Gabriel. He didn’t seem that remarkable, but then again neither was Teal, the short haired girl. I supposed not everyone needed to out of the ordinary here. Appearances could be deceiving, but in Gabriel’s case it had only taken a few minutes of listening to their conversation to suspect he wasn’t capable of acting on that tier.  
  
Toby kept glancing back at me and I got the odd feeling Shaeine was keeping an eye on me as well, despite her lack of turning around. Sadly my slowly improving mental fog didn’t seem to be connected to the problem I was having with reading faces, so it was hard to tell if they were worried or suspicious. I was reluctant to ask if anyone else had the same problem until I was more certain of my position. I would make do, I always did.  
  
We approached a stone building with well worn wooden floors and a sign that clearly labeled it as Ronald Hall. The inside was unlike any academic building I had ever seen, with weapons and shields decorating the interior, all clearly historical rather than replicas. The building reminded me more of a military barracks or armory than a lecture hall. I was reminded of historical dramas that I had watched with Dad on occasion, where older men with scraggly beards would meet in a building much like this before rallying their forces. Yet across from the entrance was the door to the main auditorium. A piece of paper clearly stuck to it haphazardly that read “Freshman Alchemy Class”.  
  
A strange choice. This world was definitely less advanced than Bet, though it did seem to have some rudimentary electricity based on the lighting and the tower, thankfully, had indoor plumbing. I supposed it wasn’t too odd for the practice of alchemy to still be around. I was weak on my history, but I didn’t think chemistry had really overtaken it as a proper science until sometime in the 18th or 19th century. Divergence could certainly account for that.  
  
The group stopped in the doorway as Gabriel and Ruda had halted, staring into the auditorium. Slowly the group edged around them, pushing into the auditorium and I advanced with hesitant curiousity over what had surprised them. Being last left me the last one into the surprisingly modern looking classroom. Stadium style seating with rows of seats surrounding a central platform with a desk and lecture stand. I supposed no matter how odd the world, the practicals of designing a lecture theater were universal.  
  
“Alright, exactly what the fuck am I looking at here?” said Ruda, still staring down at the dais.  
  
Behind the dais was one of the largest murals I had ever seen. Only by virtue of being last had I been lucky enough to be spared staring at it for longer, for it was a massive mural depicting some blond haired maniac, shirtless, kicking a dragon between the legs while playing a guitar. The monstrosity was unfortunately well done to boot.  
  
“Is that Professor Rafe kicking a dragon in the balls?” Gabe asked uncertainly.  
  
Teal murmured, “I don’t think dragons even have those…”  
  
“I have a bad feeling about this,” said Trissiny.  
  
At that moment the door below burst open, slamming against the wall as a tall, thin man with long blond hair entered. He was dressed in a horrifyingly tight set of pants with a revealing half-open shirt, like some sort of bad 80s cover art for a trashy romance novel.  
  
“BEHOLD! Is what I would say, but given our new addition I figured that would be a bit of a waste today,” he announced, dropping the pile of books on the desk.  
  
“I thought you said you hated our teacher for today Professor Rafe?” Fross asked, clarifying a matter which, from the looks of it, had been on the others’ minds too.  
  
The almost elf-like man gave a deep laugh from his belly. “Precisely my dear Fross! For what is an academic, without an academic rival? Sadly, none suitable have declared themselves, so I have taken it upon myself to fill the gap. You may marvel at my endless ingenuity later in your own time, or during office hours. Now, given that our newly acquired and lovely Miss Weaver has yet to experience the **glory** that is Admestus Rafe, I thought it only fair to allow her a proper first taste so that she can stand on equal footing with you all.”  
  
What.  
  
Was he looking at me?  
  
He was. I wasn’t entirely sure, but I was ninety-nine percent sure. If I had my bugs, I would’ve been heavily considering the pros and cons of swarming him right now. As it was, I just glared at him and took a seat suitably close to the door. Going from the reactions of the class, I wasn’t the only one surprised by his conduct, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to play into it.  
  
“Ooooh, the silent and scary type. Well, I’m sure you’ll open up to us with time! This class is heavily participation based, so you will need to play along a bit if you want to pass. I also accept bribes if you can manage to figure out a way around Arachne’s scrying system,” he said with an exaggerated wink.  
  
“Excuse me, but what?” Gabriel asked, still staring down at him, open-mouthed.  
  
“Participation, it means you will have to be an active player in the game that is life, or more specifically, this class. It’s a good life lesson though, passively soaking up knowledge will only ever get you so far kids. Now stop making a fire hazard by blocking the exit and sit down. Hup to it!” He waved everyone inside the auditorium, waiting until the dazed freshmen had taken their seats.  
  
“Welcome to the wonderful world of alchemy. This class will be teaching you how to take the simplest of reagents and turn them into the alchemical solutions on par with any modern mage’s magic! You will learn the ancient arts of things such as poisoning your enemies, protecting your prodigious prestige through potions, and booby-trapping your lunch so that other faculty can’t steal it! By learning alchemy you are naturally sticking it to the man, as anyone can learn how to mix a potion, which is far more fair and egalitarian than the whimsiness of magic.”  
  
Well my headache was definitely getting worse now.  
  
“This is a practical class, so we’re going to start today off with a demonstration! For that, I would ask our mysterious new addition to come join me. The rest of you can come down to the front row. Don’t worry, you’ll get your turn soon enough!”  
  
Oh hell no. I was biding my time and picking up what I could. I had not signed up to be a guinea pig for whatever ridiculousness they practiced here. I would probably get lead poisoning or dosed with mercury or something.  
  
Professor Rafe was waving me down. “Come now, don’t be shy! All you have to fear is the harsh judgment of your peers and an unlabeled box of potions.”  
  
To my surprise, I wasn’t the one who had to protest.  
  
“Professor, our classmate is still recovering from the healing she received last night. It would be improper to have her subjected to magical effects so soon after,” Shaeine said perfectly politely.  
  
I flashed her a thankful look, hoping she caught it, before turning back to Rafe.  
  
He gave it a moment’s thought. “No extra credit because that was far too cordial, but your point stands. Alright! Gabe, get up here. First potion’s going on you.”  
  
Gabriel groaned, getting to his feet and lumbering down the steps to the side reluctantly.  
  
“This is going to turn me into a newt or something, is it?” he asked.  
  
“Of course not! That would be baleful polymorph, which is far too expensive in terms of reagents to use on you lot. We’ll start with a simple demonstration. The power of alchemy is its versatility and accessibility. With the right formula even the most uneducated farmer’s son could mix a potion of feather-fall or a tonic to protect against contagious petrification.”  
  
He held up a small vial, no larger than what I would expect from a school’s chemistry lab. It was corked at the top and held a dark brown liquid.  
  
“Drink this,” he said, holding the vial out while jiggling it like it was a treat.  
  
Gabriel sighed, taking the vial and uncorking it. He leaned forward, taking a strong whiff of it while he eyed Rafe. “This smells like..mint?”  
  
Rafe put his hands on his hips, still projecting his voice to be unnecessarily loud. “Naturally! As an alchemical genius, I can make any potion taste as delectable as a seven course meal or smell as rotten as sewage. That one usually smells pretty awful actually, so I put some mint in.”  
  
He held a finger up. “Also a good lesson! Waft, don’t smell when it comes to alchemy. A lot of these reactions can put off fumes that can be both toxic and magical on their own right. Snorting up a big nose full of them is a good way to need an extracurricular on antidotes. Hold your hand above the mixture and wave some of the air towards you. You’ll only need to sniff the fumes off a potion of gaseous form once to learn not to do that again.”  
  
Gabriel looked a bit paler after that warning, snorting out of his nose a few times. Rafe slapped him on the back with far too much energy to be actually reassuring.  
  
“Enough stalling, drink up!”  
  
To his credit, Gabriel actually drank the whole vial in one go. I wasn’t certain if it was bravery or stupidity, but I certainly would have been too wary to commit like that myself. His hair and skin color quickly started to change, shifting to a light shade of hot pink over the next few seconds. He held his hands up in front of him, staring at the ongoing process.  
  
As the change progressed Rafe spoke, “Excellent! Now, here comes the practical part. I said that any idiot can do chemistry with the right instructions.” He pointed to the desk full of alchemical equipment in front of himself and Gabe. “On that desk lies instructions for brewing a potion that will reverse the change! While Gabe here attempts to brew a concoction that will save him from being the second most eye-catching man on campus, behind myself of course, I’ll be walking you all through his efforts. He’ll only have twenty minutes before the color sets though, so the race begins!”  
  
“Wait, what? Are you fucking kidding me?”  
  
“Points for doubting the man, but you really ought to get working. That brew takes a good twelve minutes assuming you don’t mess any of it up,” Rafe said with a giddiness and energy in his voice that was unsettling.  
  
I sat silently. My mild horror at the conduct of this Professor Rafe was being tempered by the much more important fact that the potion had actually worked. Gabriel was a bright, offensive pink from head to toe, save for his clothes. I could explain it as Tinkertech, certainly, but Rafe had said that anyone could learn alchemy. That was antithetical to Tinkertech, which was practically defined by its inability to be replicated or maintained by others, with a few rare exceptions.  
  
If magic on this world was just their version of powers, that would make sense. But if alchemy worked for everyone, that threw a spanner into my theory. I was pretty certain normal chemistry wouldn’t be able to replicate that feat either. Which meant either powers here worked in an entirely alien way or there was more at play than I had already suspected.  
  
As Rafe lectured on and Gabriel grew increasingly frantic, I listened and I thought.  
  
  



	5. Chapter 4

### Chapter 4

  
  
I walked into Introduction to Magic with anticipation. It certainly would prove more fruitful than my attempts to track Tellwyrn down. All that had done was somehow result in a note in my pocket listing the same office hours that were on the schedule I had been given. Coincidentally there wouldn’t be any until tomorrow, meaning that this class was my best shot at learning something today.  
  
What the locals called magic I had initially written off as the local version of powers. After all, it wasn’t all that rare even on Bet for a cape to claim some degree of magicalness, either in name or actual speech. One of the Protectorate’s most famous capes had been such a case. That powers could do, as far as I was aware, basically anything certainly didn’t help. After all, how would one tell apart magic from cape powers? A sufficiently funded Tinker or flexible grab-bag could easily resemble fictional powers.  
  
This class promised to give me very valuable insight into the nature of what was going on here. I had my suspicions that I’d get a similar looking piece of the puzzle here as I did from Rafe’s class. That magic would have a key difference from powers, that anyone could use it. That would strongly suggest I wasn’t in some alternative Earth. I wasn’t sure if Scion and his partner would’ve made a world where powers worked completely differently, but we had never seen a hint of that even when fighting him across half a dozen versions of Earth. That this world didn’t seem to be dreading another sweep of golden light was another weight on the scale in favor of that.  
  
The auditorium used for Professor Yornhaldt’s class in Derringer Hall was similar in style to the last. Another modern setup with tiered seating facing a central dias inside a surprisingly medieval looking exterior. Instead of a chemistry bench taking up the front there was instead an empty desk with a blackboard behind it this time. A much more sensible and less boisterous room by far, especially since it didn’t sport a massive mural to the man’s ego.  
  
We had all arrived a bit early, given how our schedule had worked out. Fortunately I was being spared the difficulty of making small talk with my classmates leaving me well enough alone for the moment. The girl who kept wearing full armor around, Trissiny, occasionally shot a look my way, but for what purpose I wasn’t sure. Perhaps she was as suspicious of me as I was of someone who walked around in plate. Certainly a Brute rating on that girl, I noted.  
  
“Good afternoon everyone,” said Professor Yornhaldt as he entered the room. “I’m pleased to see that not only have we not lost anyone yet, but we’ve gained a student even.”  
  
Professor Yornhaldt was a dwarf, a fair bit shorter than myself and easily twice as wide. His figure was less of an hourglass or inverted triangle than a rectangle. Almost a square. He matched my image of dwarves from Lord of the Rings, which was the only reason I so quickly jumped to that. Between him and the others, I was quickly coming to terms with the fact that this world had a significant number of distinct races. Hopefully there was a library where I could look up the basics, since asking about that would definitely cause some suspicion.  
  
“Wow, how much did last year’s class mess up to lower your standards that far?” Ruda asked in reply.  
  
“Never underestimate the capability of young adults to create trouble,” he replied with an amused tone.  
  
“Now then. Last time we went over the definition of magic and you all got to see a small demonstration. Now we will begin the real teaching. Who here can name the four schools of magic?” He asked, his voice easily carrying across the room in a deep baritone.  
  
Nearly every hand went up in the auditorium, though I couldn’t exactly make out if Fross was raising hers. I half raised mine in an ambiguous gesture that could be raising my arm or maybe just scratching my head.  
  
Professor Yornhaldt pointed. “Teal, tell us if you will?”  
  
The girl with short hair lowered her hand. “The four schools are Infernal, Divine, Fae, and Arcane.”  
  
“Very good. I’m sure most of you have had exposure to some, if not all, of these schools of magic. Each school has its own benefits and weaknesses, otherwise everyone would simply learn the best one,” he lectured, looking around as he spoke. “While the nature of magic makes it so that not all schools are created equal it would be reasonable to consider them equal enough for the purposes of the average lay person. Later in the month we’ll broach the particulars of this, as none of you are likely to be the average lay person.”  
  
I flipped my small notebook that Janis had thoughtfully given me, taking the pencil awkwardly in my left hand. I was no lefty and I had never been particularly ambidextrous, but I’d have to learn eventually.  
  
He started by drawing an ankh on the board and circumscribing it within a circle. “Let us begin with divine magic. Given that we have two paladins in our class this year, would either of you like to volunteer your understanding of divine magic?”  
  
Trissiny raised her hand, speaking after a quick nod from the dwarf. “Divine magic is the blessing given by the gods to their followers, which enables them to wield their energies.”  
  
Yornhaldt clasped his hand behind his back. “Correct. Divine magic is derived from the Pantheon. While my kind, dwarves, can access divine magic without forming a pact with a deity it is not so for other races. To access divine magic most need to follow a specific deity and be granted access. Naturally it follows that the higher one’s rank or more powerful one’s faith, the stronger their use of divine magic. This is by and large true, though as with anything there are exceptions and natural aptitude does play some role.  
  
“Clerics and priests almost all have some access to divine magic. Most commonly this is used to heal minor wounds, perform ceremonies, and protect holy sites. Drawing too much power can be impossible, in the case where your patron god protects you, or can kill you if they let you draw more than you can handle. On the opposite end of the spectrum are paladins, the chosen hands of the gods. An experienced paladin, pound for pound, is a match for nearly a master of nearly any other field of magic and should be considered their equivalent.”  
  
Trissiny shifted in her seat uncomfortably while Toby sat silent and still, both our paladins seemed to be opting out of participating any further.  
  
“No offense Prof, Trissiny is good and all, but I can’t see her facing down Tellwyrn,” Gabriel called out.  
  
Yornhaldt paused, turning to face Gabe. “You’re quite correct. Besides the fact that Professor Tellwyrn is rather unusual as far as mages go, your classmates are also quite young. A decade under their belts and there will be very few people on this continent who could feasibly take them down. Paladins have been known to take down hundreds and even thousands of enemy combatants in a single battle. Make no mistake though, even an inexperienced paladin is still a threat to most people. Attacking a paladin is attacking the chosen representative of a god and I assure you the Pantheon does not want people thinking that such actions are feasible.”  
  
Gabe scratched his head. “So why do paladins ever die then?” He faltered, rushing his words, “Not to say you two will, just like, if the gods protect them then how can they even go down?”  
  
“It’s a good question,” Yornhaldt answered. “And the answer isn’t simple. Some lose the favor of their patron and are left to their own devices. In almost all other cases paladins usually die against insurmountable odds. For some reason the gods either can’t, or won’t, step in to push on the scales any more heavily. We can only speculate as to why, but even paladins have limits to what they can withstand and how much magic they can access. Perhaps the gods don’t want their chosen to be tempted with immortality, perhaps more power would be too much for our minds to handle. Whatever the reason, it is what it is.”  
  
The class was silent at that. Both Trissiny and Toby were looking down into their laps and I imagined they must’ve been sullen. If I thought I was literally chosen by god it would be a rather harsh reminder to be told that eventually I’d hit my limit and fail. Hell, I hated feeling like I hit my limits and I didn’t have delusions of grandeur.  
  
“Normally I’d move clockwise, but as it’s my own speciality I’ll show a modicum of bias and introduce arcane magic next,” he said, drawing an eye within a circle in the nine o’clock position with the ankh at twelve o’clock. “Arcane magic is my personal interest, so I’ll explain this time. Arcane magic is the only school of magic without a deity supporting it that we know of. While divine comes from the Pantheon, infernal from Scyllith, and fae from Naiya, arcane has never had any deity take credit for it. Indeed, if accounts of the Elder War are true, no other Elder gods survived beside Scyllith and Naiya and so there are no other gods who could be the origin of arcane. It is considered one of the greatest mysteries of magic. Arcane magic is the most accessible school partially because of this. It requires no pact with a god or faerie spirit, nor does it have the fundamental risks of infernomancy.”  
  
I had been too busy trying to scrawl down what I could in nearly illegible writing to stop and think much, but that caught my attention. So every school of magic was supported by one of these gods, but arcane magic was a mystery. On one hand, it was easy to reach for powers as an explanation. Capes like Teacher could grant varying levels of powers to their followers, usually at some sort of cost. I could see these so called gods being amped versions of those powers here._ Like the woman in blue, ruling over a whole world._ The memory flashed into my head with a spike of pain, a throbbing headache coming to life.  
  
What was that? The memory had faded quickly, like a dream half remembered. Something from the fight against Scion? Grasping for the details of it ended fruitlessly.  
  
“-arcane magic is the foundation of modern industry. Essentially all mass produced enchantments are made with arcane magic and such mass production has allowed for the rapid improvement and expansion of infrastructure in the Tiraan Empire. It is no exaggeration to say that mass produced arcane enchantments, from lighting fixtures to military staves, are responsible for the modern geopolitical landscape. However, that is a topic for Professor Arachne’s class. I’ll leave it to her and simply say that arcane magic has proven to be incredibly versatile, despite being considered by some to be the weakest school of magic. Some theories attribute this to the lack of a supporting deity, but there is little evidence to support either direction.”  
  
So three sets of gods that supported three schools and then a fourth unaligned school. Three power blocs is what that sounded like to me. The existence of arcane magic kept me from latching onto the super-Teachers theory for this world. While that would explain three of the schools, it left no reason for the fourth. Arcane magic was apparently responsible for their version of the Ford assembly line it sounded like, allowing mass produced complex goods. What motivation was there to have a school of magic that was accessible to everyone? A half dozen paranoid thoughts crept into my head, but none of them were productive.  
  
“Arcane magic is different from divine in that it depends heavily on your own skill. There is no helping hand to guide you through the workings and the only limit to your use of it is your own skill and creativity. Magic is imposing subjective physics on reality as we discussed previously. Arcane and infernal magic are the two schools that benefit most heavily from study and practice. While all forms of magic are more like art than science, science is eminently more helpful when trying to calculate a teleport than when trying to convince a fae spirit to help you. Similarly, for infernal magic, precision is important to reduce your risk of exposure to corrupting energies. Both schools heavily emphasize precision and practice. You’ll see-”  
  
My aching mind was racing. So two schools of magic that were somewhat empathetic, or more feeling based, it sounded like and two schools that were more calculated and careful. I had to assume, at least until he got to it, that infernal magic was supposed to be evil. It was hardly a name people gave to a friendly or useful magic. The mention of corruption definitely gave a sinister implication to it.  
  
“If I recall correctly at least two of you were interested in arcane magic. Fross and Gabriel, if I'm not mistaken?” he asked.  
  
Fross answered first with a chipper, “Yup!”  
  
“Yeah,” Gabriel answered, much more relaxed.  
  
“Excellent. Is anyone else interested in learning the arcane? I’ll take no offense if none of you are. I know it would be quite difficult, or downright impossible, for many of you given your nature or respective calling,” Yornhaldt said, scanning the auditorium.  
  
This was the perfect chance for me. If the other schools were powers related, arcane was possibly the only safe one for me to experiment with. There was the chance that arcane was also controlled by a deity playing a long con, but I needed to take some risks or I’d never make enough progress to figure things out. By showing interest I could enter as a beginner without suspicion and start getting into the meat of things. I raised my hand slowly.  
  
“Oh! Miss Weaver, you’ve developed an interest in arcane magic then?” he asked with what sounded like pleased surprise.  
  
I gave a nod. “Yeah, you made it sound pretty interesting.”  
  
“Have you any experience with arcane magic? I know Fross is already quite the talented natural arcanist and Gabriel is a novice with an interest in enchanting,” he said, giving a bob of his head to each of them.  
  
“No, I can’t say I have,” I answered truthfully.  
  
The dwarf seemed entirely unsurprised by that. “Might I ask what you do have a background in? We like to get to know the students, but unluckily you joined just after I met the rest of your class.”  
  
Everyone was staring at me, clearly curious as well. I had avoided small talk by walking slightly separate from them and after the previous day it was obvious they were starting to get curious. Deflecting again wouldn’t do me much good here.  
  
“Uh…” I hesitated. “Spiders.”  
  
I felt everyone’s eyes on me as the silence deepened.  
  
“Also bees.”  
  
“Hmmm. Fascinating, I wouldn’t have taken you for an entomologist. Regardless, please stop by my office when you can and we can discuss your interest further.”  
  
Oh great. Stopping by the teacher’s office was just what I wanted to hear. At least I didn’t have the feelings of dread I got at Winslow from it.  
  
Professor Yornhaldt looked up at the mechanical clock ticking over him, shaking his head. “That’s our time for today. Next class we will cover the other two schools of magic. Your homework for today is to read up on the history of the Elder War specifically in regards to the appearance of divine and arcane magic. Class dismissed.”


	6. Chapter 5

### Chapter 5

  
  
I rapped my knuckles twice on the thick wooden door, waiting in the stone hallway outside. The clunk of my hand against the door had been less rhythmic than I was used to. The ever present reminder that I was working with my off-hand these days. The door opened with only a slight groan despite how heavy it appeared. Professor Yornhaldt stuck his head out the door.  
  
“Ah! Miss Weaver. I’m glad you see you chose to stop by. Please, come in,” he said in the same calm, pleasant tone he had used in the lecture.  
  
I stepped into his office. I wasn’t sure why I had expected everything to be dwarf-sized, but that was far from the case. Beyond his chair and desk being a bit lower, the rest of the office was human proportioned. Bookcases lined the walls, holding a plethora of yellowed tomes, scrolls, and thick books. The carpet gave the office a cozy feeling, augmented as it was by the currently empty fireplace and cushioned chairs. A number of devices that I couldn’t guess the use of were scattered across his various end tables and desk. One resembled those mini-kinetic solar systems used in fancy offices, another was a set of four icons on a constantly rotating disc.  
  
I took a seat on the other side of his desk, feeling myself sink into the cushion a little. Professor Yornhaldt did the same, pushing some papers off to the side.  
  
“I was there when you were dropped off by Vemnesthis. I don’t say this as a way to pressure you into opening up. Just so that you know I understand your situation to a degree. Professor Tellwyrn has briefed all your teachers with the essentials and so I hope you’ll find your transition here to be not too rough,” he said.  
  
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. That he had seen me dropped off opened up a lot of questions. Questions I had been saving for Professor Tellwyrn, but had unable to address yet. Trusting the man was a bit of a stretch, but if he had seen me arrive then he likely knew a fair bit of what I was trying to keep secret anyway. It would be foolish to trust him wholesale, but the chance to get some real answers was worth a bit of risk.  
  
“I actually had some questions about that,” I said in return.  
  
He spread his hands wide. “By all means. Though I’ll warn you that I likely can’t answer too much.”  
  
I took a short breath in, thinking for a second as I formed my words. “Arachne, Professor Tellwyrn, called me a dimensional refugee. In my home we knew of other dimensions. Other Earths, which diverged in history at different points. But this Earth is different. Far more different.”  
  
I looked him in the eye as I asked the most critical question I had. “I need to know if this is a world that diverged even further back, or if I’m somewhere entirely else.”  
  
The dwarf slowly rocked his head forward and back in a thoughtful manner, gazing out past me.  
  
“That’s a difficult question to answer. Without knowing about your world, I can’t say. However I can tell you that our world, the one you stand on, is over eight thousand years old. Best estimates place it somewhere north of double to triple that, but records from before the Elder War are scarce. The Elder Gods were overthrown nearly eight millennia ago and replaced by the Pantheon, the current gods. The sapient races you see in the world today were all largely created during the time of the Elder Gods. Man, dwarf, elf, dryad, kitsune, orc, drow, and so on,” he finished. “Does any of that give you an indication of where to start?”  
  
Eight thousand years would’ve been back in six thousand BC on Bet. Long, long before there were any parahumans, though if there had been they likely would have been like gods. But he had implied that civilization dated back nearly eight millennia. Nearly twice as long as Bet had hosted civilization. That all these other races had originated back then meant that any divergence point was tens of thousands of years ago. If I assumed the races evolved, rather than were created like in myth, the time for that many different species was hundreds of thousands, if not more. This world was, for all intents and purposes, completely and utterly foreign to me then.  
  
The confirmation of what I had slowly started to suspect was unsettling. I truly was alone here then, somehow cast far away from anything familiar. I couldn’t be certain this wasn’t some greatly diverged version of our world like Aleph, but given the differences, it was an almost academic point. It was odd that I could understand them and that there were recognizable humans, for all that everything else was changed. Still, there was no doubt that the planet I was on was far from home. The silence in the air started to grow heavy and I realized that the Professor was waiting on my response patiently.  
  
“In a way, it does,” I said, still processing. “I think this is somewhere else. Or so highly diverged that it might as well be.”  
  
Professor Yornhaldt leaned forward a little. “Fascinating. Please feel free to stop me if it makes you uncomfortable, but what is your world like?” He chuckled. “I’m afraid Professor Tellwyrn didn’t share much of the chat she had with you.”  
  
“I didn’t tell her anything would be why,” I answered frankly. ”My world is different. We don’t have magic, though powers did appear a few decades ago. We also don’t have gods, either old or new. Or orcs, or elves. There’s only humans where I come from.”  
  
The Professor grabbed a piece of paper, scribbling down notes quickly. “I see. What are these powers? And no gods...how are the various planes, such as Hell, contained without them then?”  
  
I frowned a bit. “Powers are just that. They’re super powers that people get. Most people don’t have any, but a small subset of people go through something terrible, they trigger, and they get powers. The power depends on the person. As for planes, I don’t think we have any. Are you saying there’s an actual Hell here?”  
  
“Oh yes, it’s quite real. Demonic incursions have been one of the most significant threats in modern history since the Elder War. Hellgates are considered one of the worst disasters that can happen to an area, as demons will be drawn relentlessly to a breach,” he said nonchalantly.  
  
“Actual demons. Like, monsters that want to kill or corrupt all life. Cast out of heaven. That sort of thing,” I asked flatly, finding the entire notion horrifying.  
  
The Professor nodded, waggling his hand. “Not entirely accurate, not all demons are quite so destructive, though it is true of the majority. Many species of demon are entirely original to hell, but souls that are found wanting by Vidius can end up in Hell as well. The ecosystems in Hell are, pardon the pun, hellishly complex.”  
  
What in the actual fuck. I had been tossed into a dimension with a literal hell apparently. With literal demons. I was not prepared for this. If I had known this would happen I would’ve tried to go to Immaculata. Did pepper spray work on demons? Could demons talk? There was a whole new world of questions I had.  
  
“If your plane does not have a Hell or gods, how are the souls of the dead handled?” he asked, his eagerness interrupting the second horrifying realization I had today.  
  
My shrug told him as much as I knew. “No one knows. Some religions propose a heaven and a hell, some say reincarnation, some people believe souls don’t even exist. But no one knows for sure.”  
  
The dwarf hesitated, for once seeming just as surprised as I was. Even without reading his face I could tell that was a major revelation for him to process.  
  
“I must say, that sounds awfully difficult to live with,” he finally replied.  
  
“That’s a way to put it.” I sighed, looking to the side, distracting myself by reading the spines of some books. “I had other questions though.”  
  
“Of course, I’ll answer what I can,” he said.  
  
I gestured to my face, “Can you read my face? Tell what I’m feeling?”  
  
“Yes. Is there any reason I should not?” he answered.  
  
I furrowed my brow, displeased. The easy answer would’ve been if no one could here and it wasn’t some weakness just for me. By him answering otherwise I now had to decide how much of my hand I wanted to play. Still, I was getting more answers in the last ten minutes than I had in the last two days.  
  
“I can’t,” I said bluntly. “Ever since I woke up here, I can’t understand people’s faces. I can see the parts, like where your eyes are looking, but the whole, your expression, is like static. I can’t see if your'e happy, sad...” I trailed off, giving another shrug.  
  
I was really missing that right now. I had never appreciated how much a simple conversation relied on being able to read how the other person was feeling at the moment. But not knowing if your advice was taken well or if someone was off their game made every conversation like navigating a minefield blind.  
  
“Well I can certainly say that isn’t normal. You were in poor condition when you arrived here. It’s possible that this is a result of that. I’ll have a word with Miss Sunrunner, our resident medical expert. She may be able to offer more help,” he said with a worried tone to his voice.  
  
Well that was just great. A cherry on top of the shit sundae I was getting today. The worst case scenario for pretty much every question was turning out to be true. I supposed it was at least some small concession that there wasn’t a hostile M/S situation going on, though I should ask about that, but that was offset by the existence of literal demons.  
  
“Could it be a magical effect? Something someone put on me?” I asked, getting it out of the way now.  
  
Professor Yornhaldt hesitated, before shaking his head. “No. Theoretically it’s possible, but there are few in the world who could manage it. None, save the gods maybe, that could do it and hide it from Arachne on her own campus.”  
  
A small silver lining then, that I wasn’t being actively manipulated, unless it was Professor Yornhaldt himself doing it for some reason. The whole thing reminded me of Jack Slash and Bonesaw, when they had made everyone forget what others looked like. The similarity didn’t help me feel any better about it.  
  
I had a lot of questions, but I was trying to hit the important ones first.  
  
“What exactly is magic? Can everyone do it?” I asked.  
  
Professor Yornhaldt explained with muted, but present, enthusiasm. “Magic is a very complex field of study, but it can be simplified as making one’s subjective reality mesh with physical reality via the energy system we call magic. There are different schools of magic, which accomplish this in different ways, but the fundamental principle is the same. As for whether anyone can do magic, that is also complex. Almost everyone can do some form of magic. All dwarves can do divine magic, despite not pledging to a god. Nearly anyone can do infernal magic, if they’re willing to take the risk. All elves can do arcane magic, as can a substantial portion of humans. Fae magic is accessible, but depends heavily on your ability to commune with spirits. In essence, it is extraordinarily rare for someone to be completely incapable of any form of magic. Many will find it difficult or downright impossible to learn, but are not fundamentally incapable of it.”  
  
Another tally for the ‘magic isn’t powers’ board then. The next question was obvious, but it had to be asked.  
  
“Can _I_ do magic?”  
  
I could feel the warm smile from across the desk in reply. “Why don’t we find out?”  
  
He hopped out of his chair, walking around to one of the end tables piled high with dog-eared books and grabbed a device off it. The same spinning disc as before, a contraption that looked like it was made of a silverish metal, with a few small studs along the side, and the four symbols on top. I recognized two from his class earlier in the day.  
  
“This”-he hefted the object up in my direction-“is a needlessly complex way to test one’s affinity for magic. However, it makes a rather pretty spectacle and does give a better idea of one’s potential issues than the quick and dirty tests like using a wand.”  
  
He offered the object to me and I took it in my outstretched hand, holding it in the same spot that he had held it by. It didn’t look fragile, but I was cautious with something that looked so expensive.  
  
“Simply focus on the device and try to feel out to it. It’s okay if you don’t feel like anything is happening. Just focus on it and I will provide a small kickstart, then it will do the rest,” he said.  
  
I followed his advice, closing my eyes and trying to mentally reach out to the object. There was nothing there, no sense of power or connection like my powers had given me. No recognition I was holding anything more than a fancy paperweight. Then, after a moment had passed, I felt something. A strange, uncomfortable sensation in my head that didn’t quite fit into my notion of three dimensional space. It prompted me to open my eyes and I saw that the symbols on each quadrant of the disc had begun to glow faintly.  
  
First the symbol of divine magic, the inverted ankh. It glowed feebly, pulsing unevenly for a few seconds and then stopped. Next a symbol of a leaf, Fae magic if I had to guess. The glow was brighter and steady, the green light fading away again in turn. Next the wreath, which had to be infernomancy by default, glowed crimson the same way the leaf had. Finally the eye, for arcane magic began to glow. The blue glow as steady and strong as the other two, with a certain pulse to it as well.  
  
As the final symbol powered down, the sensation in my head subsided slightly, but was still present. Not painful, like the slowly weakening headache I had had since arriving here, but uncomfortable like when you stretched a muscle in a way it hadn’t stretched in a few months or did a math problem in a new way.  
  
Professor Yornhaldt took the disc back, placing it carefully onto on the book he had retrieved it from. Turning back to me he spoke in a cheery tone, “You can sleep easy, you appear to be as magically capable as anyone with access to everything except divine. A little bit of divine residue and some fluctuance with arcane, but frankly, considering your origins, much more normal and interpretable than we had any right to expect.”  
  
He wasn’t wrong about that. I had no idea what fueled magic here or how people interacted with it, much like I had no idea how powers worked, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if I was completely cut off from accessing it. Learning that I not only had a chance to learn magic, but my choice of schools, was a relief. If I had been one-armed, powerless, **and** completely unable to access the closest equivalent to cape powers that dominated the world I might have just screamed.  
  
I knew I didn’t have to choose immediately, or ever possibly, since no one had ever stated you couldn’t learn multiple schools, but I already knew two schools were out. I wasn’t about to use divine magic. I had no desire to be subservient to the same bastards that had dumped me here without a word, especially if I might need to find a way to strong arm them. I also wasn’t about to use infernomancy in a world with an actual Hell filled with real demons. No, I was good without that.  
  
And then there were two. Fae or arcane?  
  
  



	7. Chapter 6

### Chapter 6

  
  
I closed the door to Yornhaldt’s office feeling cautiously optimistic. I had learned a great deal about magic, about this world, and about my options. Yornhaldt had naturally been curious and I felt I had maintained a good balance between answering his questions and not revealing anything too dangerous. He had ended the meeting by letting me know I was welcome to come back and ask more at any point, in fact he’d welcome it, and I had the feeling his friendliness was genuine. I wasn’t going to tell him my life story, but I was already thinking about what to talk to him about if I came by again.  
  
“You’re looking a bit happier. Everything went well?” I heard from the side.  
  
A dozen feet down the hall stood Teal and Shaeine, the former giving a small wave as I looked.  
  
I straightened up my posture a bit and nodded. “Yeah. I managed to get a few things sorted out.”  
  
The pair walked over slowly, looking at me as they did.  
  
“That’s great! You were in there so long I was worried you’d miss Professor Ezzaniel’s class,” Teal said.  
  
I frowned. “Were you waiting the whole time I was in there?”  
  
Teal paused before answering, “Ah...no, not exactly…”  
  
“We came by with our own questions, but thought that you would likely be out any minute. We did not anticipate your session taking as long as it did,” Shaeine filled in.  
  
That was a bit awkward. I hadn’t meant to monopolize Yornhaldt’s office hours.  
  
“I see. Sorry, I didn’t realize anyone else was here,” I replied, easing up a bit.  
  
Teal put her hands up, waving them before her. “It’s no worry, really. I’d wanted a chance to talk to Shaeine anyway.”  
  
The drow, as I had recently learned, tilted her head towards Teal. “Indeed, our questions are not pressing. I take it you were following up your interest in arcane magic?”  
  
The nature of the question was a bit prying, but the phrasing was far too polite for me to get annoyed at her for it. Shaeine was clearly well versed in navigating social currents and not in a predatory way.  
  
“Yeah. I never got much of a chance to learn about magic before and arcane sounds the most interesting to me,” I answered, fairly truthfully.  
  
“Why is that?” Shaeine asked.  
  
I shrugged, turning to start slowly walking to our next class. “I’ve never been a fan of things that were exclusive to a certain set of people. I like that arcane is accessible to nearly everyone. No favoritism.”  
  
Teal bobbed her head as I spoke. “I can get that. Violence, inequality, unfairness. All things we should work to eliminate.”  
  
I hesitated, the contest between holding my tongue and engaging in an actual conversation giving me pause.  
  
“I’m not sure I entirely agree. Violence is ugly, but often there’s no better way to do what needs to be done. It can be used to protect people too,” I replied.  
  
Teal shook her head. “I can never condone violence. There’s always a better option. If not, it’s up to us to make one.”  
  
I frowned in return. “Let me give you a hypothetical…” I offered.  
  
“I’ve heard all the hypotheticals from everyone else who’s tried to change my mind. It won’t change anything,” she snapped.  
  
“A real one then,” I retorted quickly. “A man, who announces he’s going out to hunt children and there’s no time to get help. A woman, who is willing to blow up innocents to get what she wants. A creature, a monster, that kills all in its path without pause. A gang of killers and madmen who live for the pain they inflict on others. A man, bent on the destruction of everything you know with powers you can’t possibly hide from. What do you do if not fight back?”  
  
Teal turned to face me, her voice angry. “You find another way. You contain them without hurting them, you talk to them, even sacrifice yourself. You do better. But violence only begets violence and we’ll never do better if that’s the best we’ve got!”  
  
I felt my face heat up in outrage. “Do better? **Do better**? If each one of those examples hadn’t been stopped with violence, people would’ve died. Real people are alive because someone stepped in and fought and bled to stop them. You think you can talk down every madman with a gun?”  
  
“I think that if you don’t even try, we’ll never-” Teal was interrupted as Shaeine glided up between us.  
  
“I think that perhaps this discussion has gotten a little too heated and it would be best for everyone if we all took a step back,” she interjected firmly, but gently.  
  
I ground my teeth, still annoyed over Teal’s idealistic naivety. If she thought things like Jack Slash or Behemoth would respond to overtures of peace and harmony, she was even more immature than I had realized. I had learned to compromise, to encourage people to work together, but some people couldn’t be reasoned with. That had been the problem all the way to the very end. Selfish or short-sighted or just plain malicious, too many people weren’t willing to work together for the greater good.  
  
_The only way had been to make them._  
  
I clutched my forehead and eye as the half-formed memory flashed through my head. Images of capes standing perfectly still, hexagonal portals floating in the sky. What was I remembering? Something from when I was fighting Scion surely. I didn’t think I had any memory gaps before that. The memories were troubling. I was compromised and no one here knew what Master/Stranger protocols were.  
  
“Are you unwell?” Shaeine asked.  
  
“Are you okay?” Teal asked, a split second behind.  
  
I put my hand up, gesturing for them to stay back as I shook my head a few times, getting my wits back.  
  
“Fine. Just a headache,” I answered.  
  
Shaeine stared at me, with some sort of expression. “You seem to suffer those frequently. I do not know if my form of healing would work, but I could try it if you want.”  
  
“How’s it work?” I asked, both curious and wary.  
  
“I am a priestess of Themynra. While I cannot call on divine light to heal wounds in the same way as servants of other gods, I can ask Thermynra to pass judgement and heal you if she finds you unfairly afflicted.”  
  
I wrinkled my nose at that. The thought of asking a goddess to look at me and pass judgement on me did not sit well. For one, part of my current troubles were due to gods. For another, given what I had done, I doubted she’d look favorably upon me anyway.  
  
“No. Thanks though,” I replied.  
  
Teal looked at me, loitering in my personal space with an air of uncertainty. God, the girl was a bundle of anxious nerves and steadfast principles.  
  
“What?” I said, perhaps a bit too harshly as I saw her step back quickly.  
  
“I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to trigger...whatever it is you have going on,” she answered.  
  
Shaeine nodded, staring at me. For the first time I noted she had garnet colored eyes, the detail somehow having escaped me before.  
  
“I do not mean to intrude, but you do not appear to be well. This is hardly the first time we’ve seen you like this. Have you availed of other forms of healing at least?”  
  
I sighed, shaking my head. “No I haven’t. It’s a personal problem.”  
  
I started to walk away, heading towards our next class whether they cared to follow me or not. I understood that they were concerned for me, but I didn’t to have people worry about me. Especially not ones who I barely knew. Explaining to them would be a long, convoluted mess that I wasn’t interested in or in the mood for.  
  
“I get that,” Teal said, walking quickly to catch up with me.  
  
I raised an eyebrow to her, not answering but giving her the opportunity to clarify. She lifted a hand, running her fingers slowly over a pin on her lapel.  
  
“I have a, well, you could call it a condition I suppose, as well,” she finally clarified. “It’s not something I feel easily ready to share with people and it makes life difficult sometimes. I got lucky, because it ended up with me meeting someone I care a lot about, but I think I kindof get it.”  
  
Her frank honesty left me thinking for a moment. I had been ready to dismiss her as immature and naive, which she still was in some ways, but it was obvious she cared. She actually did care about everyone she met, even if they had no interest in caring about her. I gave her a once over, taking a fresh look at the girl before me. She was still dressed in one of those tailored suits, not quite masculine enough to be entirely butch but clearly a tomboy. Her hands were behind her back, legs close together. She was nervous, a bit unsure of herself. Of the majority of her face I could make little out, but her eyes were focused on me, determined despite that inner insecurity her posture betrayed.  
  
I stifled the urge to let out another sigh. I had approached this all wrong. Maybe not all of this class was the same, but Teal at least was still clearly a kid. Wherever she had grown up in this world had been more kind than Bet. She didn’t deserve to be treated poorly just for having a more idealistic outlook.  
  
“I can’t say I met anyone great from it, but that sounds similar, yeah.” I noticed Shaeine trailing behind us both, leaving us to form a rough triangle. “I guess we do have something in common.”  
  
“Something neither of us wants to share,” she added with a slightly stilted chuckle.  
  
I snorted. “True. We’re great at this aren’t we?”  
  
“Well, that’s what we’re here for isn’t it? To get better,” she replied.  
  
To get better, I thought. I didn’t really have time to perfect my hand to hand skills, nor functional powers to hone, but I supposed there was merit in approaching it that way. I could still improve. I could still hone my body, train my mind. Learn whatever magic there was here just in case I could bring it back. If Scion was still there when I returned, I would be ready.  
  
“Yeah. I guess that’s true too.”  
  



	8. Chapter 7

### Chapter 7

  
  
Professor Ezzaniel did not fuck around. I appreciated that.  
  
“Our first class was a basic demonstration of some fundamental principles behind combat and the gauging your abilities,” he said, in a steady tone with his hands clasped behind his back. “Some of you have little to learn from an introductory course, while some of you may need something even gentler, given what I saw earlier this week. The one thing that remains true at any level of skill is that practice is always beneficial to you. There’s a favored saying among many martial artists that goes as such: ‘I am not afraid of one who knows a thousand different strikes, but one who has practiced one strike a thousand times’. Such a sentiment can be found in nearly every major school of martial arts in some form because it holds a fundamental truth. Mastery of even a single skill gives one an impressive advantage that is not easily surmountable by tricks or clever thinking.”  
  
We were standing in one of the green spaces that dotted the university; there were a few trees along the paths that encircled it. The class was in a rough semi-circle, neatly divided by gender with Gabe and Toby on the far edge and the rest filled in with the girls. Trissiny was standing at attention, giving it her all of her focus in what looked like a parade rest sort of stance, which came as no surprise to me. Also of little surprise was Teal, with her tailored suit, looking distinctly disinterested by the way she was half turned away. The rest of the group seemed appropriately in the middle, though it was still difficult to be certain. I was admittedly a bit curious how Fross was supposed to gain anything from this class, but presumably a world full of magical creatures had answers for that.  
  
Personally, I was mixed. I was interested, learning more about combat was always useful, especially given my life choices. On the other hand, it was the one thing here I already understood. Learning about this world, the gods, and magic all seemed like a higher priority than practicing my baton take-downs. I reflexively felt for my baton, the missing hand feeling like it was there for half a second before reality kicked in and I grimaced. I had never been too much of a righty, but losing my dominant arm was definitely a kick in the teeth for my ability to fight. Learning to fight left-handed would be practical and I definitely liked the idea of getting practice in.  
  
Professor Ezzaniel methodically paced across a small section of the green, facing us as he spoke, “Today we will be engaging in some analysis. Much of the time the victor in a fight has been decided before the first punch is even thrown. While your image of a paladin or orc headhunter might include bulging muscles, the mind is as important a muscle as the ones in your body. For example, who in your class would you say has the shortest effective range?”  
  
Heads turned, students clearly looking at each other in a moment of consideration.  
  
Gabe spoke up, his voice that mix of confident he was right and wary that this was a trick, “It’s Fross, isn’t it? She’s far smaller than the rest of us.”  
  
“It’s a reasonable conclusion, if based on flawed assumptions. Fross, while unable to punch you with any substantial force or from any range, is also a small, fast, magical flier. Her effective range, if you have no way to contain her, which I assure you would be quite difficult, is essentially anything she wants it to be, within a few dozen feet,” he replied forwardly.  
  
“Is it lefty over there?” Ruda offered, pointing to me. I frowned slightly at the nickname.  
  
Professor Ezzaniel nodded with a slight pause. “The shortest range combatants in your class would be Weaver, as you’ve correctly deduced, and Gabriel. The rest of you either are magical in some way that gives you more range than your height would otherwise allow or wield weapons with sufficient proficiency and reach to change your range. Thinking of range as a simple measurement is a flawed method, however.”  
  
He reached into the carpetbag at his feet, pulling out a rapier and holding it to the side, imitating the stance I’d seen fencers use classically. “Take, for instance, a man with a rapier. Think of his range not as his maximum reach with the blade, but as a bubble, existing in three dimensions around him.”  
  
He stabbed forward with the blade, lunging deeply before returning to position. “In front of him the bubble extends quite far, nearly as long as he is tall.” He continued, swiping to the sides with quick flicks of his wrists. “To the side it sweeps out, though not quite as far.” He jabbed downwards, angling his elbow up in what looked like an uncomfortable position to jab in front of his own leading foot. “Below, it has reach, but falters the closer it gets to the body. Above it fairs far better.”  
  
He opened the carpetbag again and dropped the blade back in without watching, turning to face us and continue his lecture. “Every weapon, every being, has an invisible bubble around them that is what is called their zone of control. Entering this zone of control means that they are able to hit you in some way. Physical combat starts when two zones of control overlap. That is the earliest moment when two combatants can influence the other with anything other than their mind. You will need to learn to develop a sense for this, as it changes depending on the weapon they wield, the person’s height, and any number of other factors.”  
  
Stretching one arm out to the side he made a fist and then brought it around, demonstrating a rough idea of the reach of his fists. “Incorrectly estimating someone’s zone of control is one of the most frequent and deadly mistakes you can make in combat. It is the difference between dodging by a hair’s breadth and being clocked in the face. It is the difference between a disabling blow and a killing one. While this is not explicitly taught until higher levels in many schools of martial arts, you do not have the luxury of spending a decade refining your basics to ingrain it subconsciously. Therefore you shall have to work at it.”  
  
He nudged the carpetbag forward with his foot, looking meaningfully at us. “As this is a practical course, we shall naturally be demonstrating this with practice. Also, seeing as I did not get to gauge Miss Weaver’s combat proficiency before, this will serve dual purposes.” Professor Ezzaniel pointed to me. “Miss Weaver, I will give you the courtesy of choosing your opponent. However, I would forbid Fross or Juniper as neither would be suitable for this demonstration.”  
  
I grimaced a bit at being put on the spot, but shrugged, rolling my shoulders as I stepped forward. At least sparring wouldn’t be too bad, it was something I could avoid embarrassing myself with. I turned around, looking at the class to consider my options.  
  
Well Fross was an obvious no go, given that I wasn’t sure I could hit her and I wasn’t sure she could do anything to me. Not really a proper sparring match. He had forbade Juniper, which was fine by me. Teal looked like she wanted no part of this from how she hunched in and the idea of punching someone so unwilling to fight back left a sour taste in my mouth. Shaeine had been friendly to me so far and I wasn’t particularly inclined to force her into this exercise. She also seemed too polite for the kind of sparring I was used to. Gaberiel seemed a bit like Alec had been, a goof that wouldn’t take it seriously. Toby I hadn’t talked to much, though he was friendly. Trissiny was in good shape, seemed the military type with the armor she constantly lugged about, and she apparently got up early to run like I used to do. Ruda was a fair bit shorter than me, but seemed scrappy and ready to fight. Practically that left Toby, Trissiny, and Ruda to pick from if I wanted a decent match with someone.  
  
I had some leftover anger, so I decided to go for broke and pointed to Trissiny. “Would you be okay with that?” I asked.  
  
“Of course,” she replied immediately, stepping forward.  
  
Ruda was cackling from her spot on the side of the semi-circle. “Ooooh, that girl does not know what she’s in for.”  
  
I saw Gabriel half step forward as if to interrupt but Toby put a hand on his chest, stopping him and whispering something into his ear.  
  
Professor Ezzaniel merely turned to look at me. I got the impression his face had an interesting expression on it just now. “Very well. Reach into the bag and think of the weapon you want. Your objective in this match is to properly assess the range of your opponent and avoid getting hit while laying a hit in what you assess as their weak spot.”  
  
Trissiny stepped over to the bag first, pulling out wooden replicas of her sword and shield. I followed her example, sticking my arm in and trying to think of what I wanted. I guessed I’d go with a baton, though against a sword and shield what I really wanted was a pistol. Feeling something nudge my hand, I pulled out a surprisingly light feeling replica of glock.  
  
“What’s that?” Gabe asked.  
  
“Put that back and try again,” Professor Ezzaniel said tersely.  
  
I dropped the replica gun back into the bag and thought more clearly of my extendable baton, finding another nudge quickly and a baton in my hand as I pulled it out.  
  
“Better, now face off and begin,” he stated simply.  
  
I twirled the baton in my left hand, getting a feeling for the weight of it. It was slightly awkward to hold it in my off hand, but I’d had enough fights where I needed to use my left hand as well that it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. Turning to Trissiny, I saw she had taken up position a solid ten feet away, facing me. Giving a bow to her, I held the baton ready and dropped into a low stance. She bowed as well and raised her shield in a guard.  
  
My immediate reaction was to try and use my swarm to confuse and distract her. The resulting spike of pain in my brain was a sharp reminder of how that wouldn’t be possible. I needed to adapt to having most of my usual strategies unavailable to me. Professor Ezzaniel had stated that this lesson was about zones of control. Where did that lie for someone with a sword and shield?  
  
I looked at her as she slowly started to approach, steady and poised. Her sword was in her right, held back and ready behind the shield. The shield covered much of her left, but meant that she had shorter range on her left side, which unfortunately was my right. Fortunately she had changed out of her armor for this class, otherwise my baton would’ve been nearly useless. I was willing to bet that since she trained in armor, she probably wasn’t much of a kicker, which meant lower range around her legs. The largest part of her bubble, and therefore threat, was that sword in her right arm. My range was focused around my left arm, something she’d pick up immediately. I needed to get my left either to her legs or around that shield then while keeping her right away from me.  
  
I started to pace sideways, keeping my torso facing her as I moved towards her right side. She rotated with me, slowing down but still steadily closing the distance between us. She stopped, holding her distance as soon as she was a step outside my baton range. I frowned internally. Clearly she knew what she was doing. Well, so did I and I wasn’t going to get back on my feet by picking easy fights.  
  
I flicked my wrist forward and went into a lunge, placing all my weight on my front foot as I struck out for her sword arm with my baton. Trissiny circled her blade, catching the tip of my baton and pushing it aside as I had expected. I tilted forward on my front foot, falling into a roll and diving across to her shield side. As I came out of the roll I lashed out for her legs, her shield crashing into the earth to block my strike. She thrust her shield forward, buffeting my shoulder and sending me skittering back to avoid a worse blow.  
  
Not wanting to lose the advantage of setting the pace I went in aggressively, planning a set of three strikes. High, mid, low. Each one was parried or blocked effortlessly and I repeated the tactic a second time, in the same order. Again she parried. One more time. High, mid, and then high. The last strike snapping up with extra speed. I nearly got past her guard, but she took a half step back and twisted her torso back, buying her distance while her shield came up and I had to snap my baton back or risk being disarmed.  
  
She finally made her first aggressive move, sword lashing out straight for my abdomen. I turned sideways, dodging and moving towards the side without a shield. She transformed the strike into a slash, matching my footwork and forcing me to hop back to avoid the follow-up. I brought my baton around, smacking the side of her sword in the same direction she had slashed, pushing her blade out of position. Without a second arm I had to improvise, so I burst forward, shoulder-checking her shield with my stump. Damn she was sturdy though, I barely felt her shift even with a body check.  
  
Trissiny let her shield come back slightly and threw me back, bringing her blade back around for another jab. I tried to catch my balance, stumbling slightly and feeling the blade score a hit as it grazed my side. I wasn’t letting this end without at least scoring one hit, even if I knew I likely couldn’t win without my bugs. Trissiny must’ve read my thoughts because the sword rapidly returned, several thrusts in rapid time all aimed at my torso. I had to give ground, feet stepping back in the dirt as I desperately parried the thrusts. I didn’t think she was even sweating.  
  
Slapping the last hit aside I was left open and she brought her sword around for a follow up slash, redirecting the momentum to her advantage. I went low, ducking under it and spinning, letting my momentum carry me to the side. My arm snapped out at the end of the spin, baton aimed for her thigh. She slickly stepped back, avoiding it by a hair’s breadth, and I brought my left leg around for a follow up kick. Her sword flashed down and smacked my leg out of the way at my knee, leaving me to awkwardly catch myself on my stump.  
  
“Halt,” Ezzaniel called out.  
  
Trissiny immediately stepped back and I took a second to pick myself up. Snorting in frustration at myself I turned to her. She did a half bow so I returned the same. I guess some customs were fairly universal.  
  
“As I’ve previously said, Ms. Avelea, you have nothing to gain from this class,” he said, before turning to address me directly. “Ms. Weaver, you clearly have extensive experience fighting, but have yet to adapt to your injury. You are aggressive and willing to take risks to land any sort of blow, regardless of how ill-advised those risks are. We will work on tempering your approach and adjusting your style.”  
  
Trissiny and I stepped off to the side, putting our weapons back into the magical bag. The casual use of magical trinkets would normally have been enough to have drawn my thoughts to it, but the loss was still on my mind. It was frustrating to be set so far back. Unable to land a single blow on an opponent roughly my size. I needed to do better. I was without my powers and it would take time for me to reach any level of magical proficiency. In the meantime I could hone my body. Professor Yornhaldt’s class was the most intriguing, but Professor Ezzaniel’s class was something I planned to dedicate myself to.  
  
“As you hopefully managed to glean from that sparring match, understanding the zone of control of your opponent is the difference between landing a blow and losing a leg. All it takes is mistaking the position of an opponent’s once to make a fatal error. Weaver did well trying to go for Trissiny’s sword arm and legs, understanding she couldn’t effectively get past her shield. Trissiny played to her strengths and didn’t rush in, choosing to gauge Weaver’s range and style before making more decisive strikes. She had the advantage in several aspects, including in her range, and didn’t neglect to use that.”  
  
He raised a hand to his side, gesturing to the bag. “Now pair up and grab a weapon. We’ll be spending the rest of this class applying these principles in practice. I will go around to each pair and give you feedback. Ms. Avelea, if you would assist me by keeping an eye on Mr. Arquin and Ms. Falconer?”  
  
I took a deep breath in and got ready to practice until I dropped.


	9. Chapter 8

### Chapter 8

  
  
I woke up slightly before dawn. I was on the bottom bunk, with Fross technically having the top bunk. I said technically because the small pixie didn’t actually sleep. We had worked out the lower bunk would be easier for me, since I didn’t need to climb one handed that way, and Fross could fly so the top bunk was equally convenient for her as the bottom one. Shaeine slept on the other side of the room, furthest from the windows. A black curtain currently covered said windows, keeping the room in nearly total darkness. A courtesy for our resident drow.  
  
And wasn’t that a thought I still had yet to fully wrap my mind around. Drows and pixies and bears, oh my. It was weird, but on the other hand it wasn’t like it was going to make me freak out. I had read enough fantasy books that I had more than a few times day dreamed of being in one of those worlds. I had never bought into the racism that gripped large parts of my home and so there was little reason in my mind to treat them as anything except other people.  
  
_When was the last time I actually read something to relax?_  
  
Awhile, at least. Since sometime after joining the Wards. I had been so ready to leave my old life behind that I had left behind some parts of it that I was regretting now. Like my love of reading. I looked over in the darkness to the nightstand by my bed. A few texts on magic that belonged to Fross sat there. A fleeting moment of hesitation had me wondering if I should take a moment to sit back, grab something to read, and find that previous passion.  
__  
Maybe another day. Things aren’t over yet.  
  
I pushed myself out of bed, groping blindly with my hand for my small collection of clothes. Fortunately Janis had been kind enough to build me a limited wardrobe on short notice, though I still had yet to track down Tellwyrn and see if I could get my armor back. I was starting to think she was just avoiding me, but apparently this kind of behavior wasn’t out of the norm for her.  
  
“Oh, you’re up early!” Fross whispered, flitting over to me. “Are you alright?”  
  
I snorted briefly. She was sweet, but everyone’s preoccupation with how I was doing was getting on my nerves.  
  
“Fine Fross, thanks,” I replied, changing into shorts and a simple shirt. “Gonna go for a run.”  
  
“That’s fun! At least, I assume so, since you humans are always doing it. I’ve always wondered what working out is like. We pixies don’t really get any benefit from exercise and even if we did, it’d be pretty pointless, what with how small we are and all,” she jabbered on quietly.  
  
I held a finger up to my lip, bobbing my head towards Shaeine.  
  
“Right, right! Sorry, I’ll be quiet. Enjoy your run!” she said and I was worried she’d keep going for a second.  
  
I quickly slipped on my shoes and quietly got out of the room before Fross could find something else to talk about. Shaeine seemed like the type not to take offense easily, but I didn’t want to be the annoying roommate who woke others up. Regardless of what country, planet, or dimension I was in, some things were just universally a dick move.  
  
The carpet on the stairs made it easy to move silently as I descended Clarke Tower. The last thing I wanted right now was to get stuck talking to someone else before I got my run in. I had yet to decide where I was running. The campus wasn’t all that large, though I could do a few loops of it. That would quickly get boring after a few weeks though. There was that hellish staircase I had seen and apparently lucked out of climbing so far…  
  
I was in luck, however. The Tower was silent and I stepped outside to see the very first glimmers of light as dawn began. It didn’t look so different from the dawn back home, I realized. I had never seen dawn from atop a mountain quite like the university here, it was quite the scene. Golden-orange rays streaking out over an auburn expanse of prairie, the endless golden sea glimmering gently as the sun gently brushed it. I did my stretches along the edge, safely a few feet back, watching the sun rise.  
  
Legs first. Bend over at the waist, stretch, reach the toes. Stretch to the sides, get legs and a bit of back. Next calves, then ankles and just a bit of feet. A light stretch of the arms, feeling everything be just a little bit lighter, a little looser, easier to move. The cracks and pops of my joints adding an intermittent soundtrack to the growing sun. I took off, starting at a leisurely jog as I followed the path around the edge of the mountain top.  
  
_This place really is beautiful. How rich is Tellwyrn to be able to build an entire university up here?_  
  
I looked over the edge, the sharp drop down the side of the mountain further from the town at the base making me wonder. How did she even get all the building materials up here? Even with modern equipment it would’ve been a monumental undertaking. I could only assume magic was involved somehow, given the roughly early industrial age technology I had seen so far. I wish I could’ve been more certain, but I had dropped out of high school halfway through. Unfortunately there were some substantial gaps in my knowledge, like the details of how the industrial age progressed. Something about mass production and factory work was the vague shape I had in my head.  
  
The campus was relatively serene at this early hour. I only once spied another student on the grounds, who didn’t appear to notice me as far as I could tell. Running by the green I gave a wave to Professor Ezzaniel, who was under a tree doing a series of slow, gliding movements that resembled Tai chi. He gave a stout nod in reply. I couldn’t read his face still, but he was a man of short, purposeful movements. He only tended to exaggerate his posture when he was exasperated, so I took the brief nod as approval.  
  
He hadn’t given me any homework, unlike some of the other professors. I wasn’t sure how much I was willing to do. Rafe’s class on alchemy was certainly interesting and Yornhaldt’s class was one of my main focuses, but how long was I planning on being here? Getting settled here wasn’t good for my long term plans, but I also didn’t want to pre-emptively cut off any avenues by being impatient. I had done enough of that early on in my career.  
  
As I mulled over how much effort to put into my assignments I headed for the stairs. I had a nice pace going, but if I was going to get into the kind of shape to let me fight Trissiny on a fair footing then I was going to need more than some light cardio. I reached the top of the stairs, looking down at the long winding staircase that connected the distant town at the bottom to the university.  
  
_Fuck’s sake, there’s got to be an elevator around here, even if it’s handcranked, right?_  
  
Not that I was planning to take it, but that staircase would be tough on anyone, regardless of fitness. Looking down I saw a figure in silver, the sun glinting off them, making them nearly blinding to look at straight on. I stopped, watching as the figure climbed the stairs, managing a steady jog. Was that plate they were wearing? What absolute insanity was driving someone to run up those stairs in plate?  
  
Wait a second. I recognized that armor. There was literally only one person on campus who walked around in silver armor.  
  
“Trissiny?” I called out as the figure neared the top.  
  
With heavy, but not exhausted, breathing, the figure hit the last few steps, reaching the top. Removing her helmet, blonde hair came out and the roughly familiar features of Trissiny were revealed.  
  
“Weaver?” she asked in a surprised tone. “What are you doing out here?”  
  
I gestured to her. “I was about to ask you the same. Going for a run. Was about to hit the stairs and see how it is.”  
  
Trissiny looked at me for a moment, looking for something. “Hard, but good. Do you exercise every morning?”  
  
“If I can, yeah,” I answered. “And if I’m going to give you a better match, I need to step it up. Especially if you’re running those stairs in armor.” I pointed to her chest, covered in plate.  
  
She took a moment to catch her breath, swallowing. “Well...would you like a running partner? When I ran with my sisters I always found it helped me.”  
  
I hesitated. I wasn’t sure why, but I had been developing the vague sense that Trissiny disapproved of me. This was clearly a friendly gesture though and likely more than I deserved. I hadn’t said much to since my arrival and done little except try to beat her in a match.  
  
“...Yeah, sure,” I replied after a second. “Tomorrow I assume, since you just ran back?”  
  
She shrugged, wiping sweat off her forehead after she shook a gauntlet off. “I can join you today. I haven’t done two laps in one go, but I can always push myself harder.”  
  
I stared at her for a second in disbelief. A second go up and down in armor? This girl was ridiculously fit if she was seriously offering that. Also driven. Fuck, if Theo had been that driven he might’ve just been able to punch Jack Slash to death. Boy would’ve been jacked.  
  
I inhaled deeply and gave a shrug in return. “If you’re up for it. Thanks.”  
  
Trissiny nodded, putting her helmet down near the top of the staircase. “I think I’ll leave the helmet for this one. At least until I’m more confident that I can handle it.”  
  
Even with the cool morning air I was wondering how she avoided getting heat stroke with all that on, so I simply nodded in understanding. After a minute to let Trissiny catch her breath a bit we started off. Going down was easier, but it wasn’t without use. If you went down too fast you were likely to tire yourself and lose control, which was dangerous on a staircase this size. It meant we needed to control our descent, watch out footing, and pace ourselves. Valuable practice that got tiring over such a distance.  
  
“Can I ask you a question?” Trissiny asked in between breaths.  
  
“Sure,” I answered.  
  
“What brought you here? Most of us have an idea why the others came, but you’ve been a bit…” she trailed off.  
  
“A bit stand-offish?” I offered, having heard that one before.  
  
She didn’t answer immediately and I kept talking, “It’s something I’m still dealing with, but I suppose I can’t reasonably keep it a secret forever. I wasn’t given a choice, I kind of got...teleported here, I guess you could say. I’m not from around here and I don’t have any immediate way back. Tellwyrn offered to let me stay as a student.”  
  
Offer was a gentle term for what had been more like an ultimatum, but I wasn’t being entirely truthful here. I’d deal with filling in the details another time, if I felt like it was a good idea.  
  
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were in that kind of situation…” she responded, sounding uncertain.  
  
I spoke in bursts, happy we were still going down for this conversation. “It’s frustrating, but I’ve dealt with worse.”  
  
“Worse than being teleported to a foreign land with no way home and no resources?” she asked incredulously.  
  
“...Yes,” I answered. I was trying to be relatively honest and frankly, as frustrating as this was, it was far from the worst thing to happen to me. No one was dying, no one was being turned into creative art pieces, a subcontinent wasn’t under threat of annihilation. Yes I was out of the final fight, but I hadn’t been an integral figure there. My power was useful, but simply not on the scope needed to fight something like Scion. As much as I hated to admit it, even if I had gone right back after winding up here, whether my friends survived was likely out of my hands. At the rate Scion had been going being here a few days meant that any chance I had of getting back in time to help was nearly gone.  
  
Fuck. Had I really gotten so distracted by the mystery that had brought me here that I had neglected to find a way back in time?  
  
“Hey.” Trissiny reached a hand out, shaking my shoulder. “What’s wrong?”  
  
I stopped, feeling the frustration welling up inside me. I had to do more, I had to find a way to fix this while I still had a sliver of a chance of helping.  
  
“I left them. We were fighting...someone much stronger than us, who was on the verge of destroying everything. And I woke up here. I need to get back. I’ve spent too much time here already, I don’t know if my friends are even alive and apparently the only way I have a chance at getting back involves getting the Pantheon to listen to me somehow…”  
  
Trissiny kept the hand on my shoulder and even I could tell she felt awkward about it. Didn’t need my broken facial recognition for that one.  
  
“Well...uh, I’m sorry. I’m not sure if it helps, but when I find myself lost I ask Avei for direction and I find it helps me.”  
  
I grunted, frustrated. “I wish it was that easy. I need actual answers from the gods, not just prayers and hoping they look kindly upon me.”  
  
“No, what I mean is that I’d ask Avei. She doesn’t answer everyone who asks, but your cause sounds worthy. And if she doesn’t, I can petition for you. I don’t think that’d be an abuse of my position,” she said with some tentativeness.  
  
I looked over at her, cocking an eyebrow. “You mean she might actually answer? And why would she answer you if not me?”  
  
“I guess it never came up, but I’m the Hand of Avei, her paladin. If anyone could get an answer, I think it would be me. Unless she deemed it inappropriate, of course, but your cause sounds noble. Avei prefers us to develop the strength to guide our own life, but she won’t ignore a just request.”  
  
Paladin? Hand of Avei?  
  
Had I challenged the fucking **hand of a god** to a duel? In retrospect Ruda’s laughing on the sidelines made _a lot_ more sense. I felt slightly less bad about getting my ass handed to me now. I also felt even more like an idiot, because I had been trying to be discreet this whole time and I was classmates with the fucking Hand of Avei, who could apparently help me ask her.  
  
I found myself nodding. “Let’s try that….thank you Trissiny.”  
  
I could hear the smile in her voice. “It’s my duty to help those in need. I’m just glad I could help someone. Do you want to go back?”  
  
I shook my head. “No, let’s finish the run first. We’re basically at the bottom anyway.”  
  
She replied approvingly, “Perfect.”


	10. Chapter 9

### Chapter 9

  
  
We made the top of the stairs in surprisingly good time, only to realize that the unplanned for distance had left us with incredibly little time to get to class. Trissiny had only accounted for doing the stairs once and I hadn’t had a good gauge on how long they would take. Normally I wouldn’t particularly be concerned with being late, but Trissiny was of a much more lawful mind than I was. There was also the fact that this was Professor Tellwyrn’s class.  
  
“We really ought to go, Weaver. I don’t know what she’ll do if we’re late, but she doesn’t seem to be the merciful type,” Trissiny pleaded.  
  
“I think we can get away with being late once. She’s probably the type to appreciate independent students,” I proposed, only having the loosest read on Tellwyrn’s attitudes. Frankly I doubted she cared very much about what her students got up to.  
  
Trissiny was chewing on her lip and I assumed the rest of her expression was ill at ease as well. The question was, could I spend another hour waiting when I could be so close to going home? Or at the very least, getting answers. One side of me said yes, I could, I had learned patience and knew when to bide my time. The other side said no, my friends were in trouble and every minute I spent here was a minute wasted. I abhorred wasting time, but the chance to catch Tellwyrn wasn’t entirely a waste.  
  
Without a noticeable tell, I found myself and Trissiny suddenly standing in the lecture hall. Tellwyrn was looking at us and tapping her foot while the rest of the class noticed our arrival at various speeds.  
  
“I understand you’re both new, but if you’re late to my class again I’ll find more creative ways to get you here than teleporting you,” she said scathingly.  
  
“Sorry- wait, did you rinse us off?” Trissiny asked, looking down at herself and touching her hair.  
  
“Well I certainly wasn’t going to have you fermenting in that armor. Even if I was willing to put up with a walking biohazard I’d still have to smell it,” she replied.  
  
I felt at my armpits, testing, and found that I was no longer sweaty in the slightest. Between that and the smoothest teleport I had ever experienced, I was quickly developing wary respect for the woman. If she was able to freely teleport people without any warning like I suspected then most opponents were probably a simple problem that could be solved by placing them a few dozen feet up in the air and letting gravity do the rest.  
  
“I have to be absent,” I tried. “It’s a matter of faith.”  
  
“Did Trissiny actually manage to convert someone in a matter of a few days? I hope you’re pulling my leg, because Rafe will be insufferable if he actually won that bet,” she said drily.  
  
“...Yes.”  
  
“Bullshit, and even should you want to push that, I’ve already told Avei that I won’t have her interrupting my students’ education. If she wants to make a fuss over it I will tell her off again,” she answered matter-of-factly. “Now sit down.”  
  
I narrowed my eyes. Tellwyrn had been nice enough to give me shelter, but she had been unnecessarily cryptic before and now was blatantly unhelpful. The problem was I didn’t have the tools to contest her on this. Without my powers and a day and a half of exercise I wasn’t exactly fit to challenge her. Now more than ever I needed preparation and a plan if I was going to take on anyone and I had neither here.  
  
Waiting an hour until after her lecture was hardly the worst ultimatum I had ever been given, but it was so hard to convince myself to sit down. It was like if someone had given Blackwell powers. She was, I was quickly coming to suspect, an unapologetic bully. Someone who hadn’t been challenged in awhile and was content to push people around when it suited her.  
  
I stood, staring her down, only noting a moment later that Trissiny had already taken a seat.  
  
Tellwyrn sighed heavily. “One moment. No one move.”  
  
Again, without warning, I found myself suddenly elsewhere. Now on a small rooftop overlooking part of the campus. A single solitary chair and an end table with a pair of books and a half empty wine glass were the only things up here.  
  
“I could make you, but I see you’re the type who would just take that as further motivation to retaliate against me. While that would still be laughably ineffective I am not interested in fighting you. What I want to do is educate you. Maybe even learn about your world in time. But I can do none of that if you’re unwilling to cooperate on the most basic level,” she lectured.  
  
I paced away from her, taking up a position that put my back to a wall at least. “Well sorry if I don’t trust the woman who said I was dumped here by some mysterious gods for unknown reasons and then fucked off without any explanation for a couple of days. Or is that a common thing to do around here?”  
  
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “There are a great number of things that demand my attention, especially at the start of the semester. I’ll grant you that I probably should have prioritized your problem more, but I was not trying to ignore you. I was trying to give the brain damaged child dumped in my lap a few days to come to terms with her situation.”  
  
I shot her a glare. “You’ll grant me that? You’ll grant me that small kindness, will you?”  
  
“Yes, since I have absolutely no obligation to do even that much. I’m of half a mind to teleport you into town so you can walk the whole way back up and let me tell you putting you on solid ground is far nicer than most people get,” she retorted acerbically.  
  
I took a few steps, rounding on her. “Is that all you do here? Pretend you’re doing people a kindness and then throwing them off the mountain when it suits you? Just some big bully on a hill.”  
  
“Generally? Yes. Except it’s not pretending and I usually only throw people off who get on my nerves,” Tellwyrn said drily.  
  
“You left me on a foreign world with no idea what was going on, in the company of a bunch of people I don’t know, with no idea who or what I can trust. I think I deserve answers more than you deserve peace and quiet.”  
  
Tellwyrn opened her mouth and paused, putting her hand to her forehead. “I think what I need to do is stop arguing with a brain damaged teenager. Fuck, I need a drink.”  
  
“So because I’m concussed I’m not even worth talking to now?” I growled.  
  
“No, the opposite in fact. Because you know what? You’re right,” she said, surprising me. “I didn’t properly account for just how disorienting it would be for you. Rather ironic actually, given my own history, but it has been some three millennia. You’re right to be suspicious and I miscalculated how difficult it would be for you to adjust.”  
  
I hesitated. Was this a trap of some sort? Or was she actually just a reasonable person who was fessing up to a mistake?  
  
“That said, I can’t have you asininely challenging my authority and interrupting class, at least do it in a way that might actually succeed. I’ll let it pass this time because this entire thing was my own damned fault and we will sit down and talk after class. Does that help settle things?” she asked, more softly this time.  
  
I drew a deep breath in and held my hand up. Turnabout or not, this was the outcome I wanted. “It does, but I’m on a timetable. I’ve wasted too much time here and Trissiny has offered to contact Avei for me. If I have a chance at going home, I can’t miss it.”  
  
Tellwyrn groaned. “That foolish girl. You were dropped off here by Vemnesthis. Avei is a member of the same group of gods, the Pantheon. The chance that she’d directly oppose an action taken by another member of the Pantheon is basically nil. Approaching the Pantheon is certainly a start, but this chat isn’t going to end with you going home. Hell, if you actually get a straight answer out of her I’d consider that a major victory.”  
  
If that were true, I was looking at months, if not years stuck here. It would mean there was nothing I could do for my friends. There was no way that the fight with Scion wouldn’t be resolved one way or another in more than a few days. We had been hunted down too quickly to draw it out much longer than that. A few smaller groups might continue fighting for longer, but any meaningful attempt at resistance would be crushed soon, if we hadn’t already passed that threshold.  
  
Tellwyrn was giving me some sort of look. I didn’t know what it was, but I didn’t care for it anyway.  
  
“I need to know,” I insisted.  
  
She closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. “I don’t know why I put myself through wrangling teenagers every year. Fine. You and Trissiny are excused from class. But we _will_ be having a talk afterwards and sorting this all out before it turns into some sort of ridiculously stupid dramatic tension.”  
  
With that I reappeared outside the lecture hall, finding Trissiny beside me. She looked at me and from how she half stepped back, I assumed she was surprised.  
  
“Weaver? What’s going on?” she asked.  
  
“Tellwyrn’s giving us a chance to talk to Avei. Do we need to find a chapel or how does this work?” I looked around, looking for anything that resembled a church.  
  
Trissiny faltered, shuffling uncertainly even though she was clad in silver armor.  
  
“Are you in trouble?”  
  
I shrugged. “Maybe. It’s not important though. Where are we headed?”  
  
Trissiny hesitated, but then nodded, pointing. “We can go back to Clarke Tower. Anywhere will do really, but I pray in my room usually and we’ll have some privacy there since everyone is in class.”  
  
“Let’s do that then,” I replied, turning and heading off towards the tower.  
  
Trissiny quickly stepped into line with me and we had a blessed minute of silence before the questions started coming.  
  
“How did you convince Tellwyrn to change her mind?”  
  
I swung my head back and forth. “I’m not entirely sure. She blames herself, I think, for some of this.”  
  
“I still don’t have a good idea of exactly what all this is,” she said, her tone suggesting she really would like to know.  
  
“I’ll answer any questions you have once I’ve got my own answers from Avei. The situation depends a lot on what she says,” I replied, a ball of emotion hardening in my gut. When was the last time I felt this anxious? “You’re doing a lot for me here. Thanks.”  
  
“Well I can’t say I really get what’s going on, but as the Hand of Avei it’s my duty to help others wherever I can,” she answered and I could tell that answer was going to get repeated a lot in the future.  
  
The rest of the walk happened in silence. I felt no need to answer that and Trissiny seemed too awkward to follow up with any more questions. There was a bit of extra confidence in her step though so I figured being able to help someone must’ve helped buoy her mood after Tellwyrn’s interruption. She was the classic goody two shoes paladin, wasn’t she? That wasn’t a bad thing, exactly. I always had had respect for the few heroes who seemed genuinely selfless. It was just so easy to cross the line into self aggrandizing and annoying.  
  
We got into Clarke Tower without problem and headed up to Trissiny’s room. The room was clearly divided between the paladin’s spartan living conditions and the pirate’s luxurious and riotous sense of decor. I had to wonder how long it would take for one of them to stab the other. They were nearly polar opposites in pretty much every respect. If I was the betting type, my money was on Trissiny winning that one. I didn’t even need to see Ruda fight to figure that one out.  
  
“I haven’t done this exact kind of thing before, but I think you can stand anywhere. I’ll get Avei’s attention and then you can ask her your question,” Trissiny stated, getting onto her knees.  
  
A slight prickling sensation travelled down my spine and after what felt like both a few moments and an eternity there was a soft flash of golden light and a tall woman in what looked like an approximation of a historical soldier’s uniform. She had dark hair and strong features, reminding me of Wonder Woman from the few comics of superheroes that had existed before the real thing.  
  
I looked at her face and somehow it made sense. I could see the soft, slight smile she granted to Trissiny and the regretful look in her eyes when she glanced at me. My brain hurt slightly with a sensation like I was looking at two things at once.  
  
“It is good to see you, my paladin,” she said to Trissiny. Turning towards me, she nodded firmly. “You stand before myself and my paladin. I am told that you have a request of me?”  
  
“I do. I need to know what happened to me and how I can get home,” I answered straightforwardly.  
  
The goddess tilted her head to the side. “An unorthodox request and rather underwhelming of my personal attention.”  
  
“Yanking people out of their home dimension is underwhelming to you?” I countered, even if she was nearly a foot taller than me.  
  
Her eyes narrowed. “Home dimension? I see...oh Vesk, you absolute, utter idiot.”  
  
I raised an eyebrow in unspoken question, holding my silence.  
  
Avei’s expression softened. “I must first offer my apologies on behalf of the Pantheon. We were not aware that Vesk and Vemnesthis had done this.”  
  
“Not that I’m ungrateful, but you’ll have to forgive me for being a little confused how a god can not know what other gods do,” I said, testing the waters.  
  
“It is a simple answer, likely the only one you will get today, which is that we respect each other’s privacy. Without good reason we avoid spying on each other’s every action. You can be assured there will be quite the discussion with those two after this,” she answered concisely.  
  
Whether or not the gods yelled at each other in this world was somewhat interesting, but hardly my main concern.  
  
“My questions then?” I repeated.  
  
Avei nodded, her lips thinned. “The answer to your situation is difficult. I can look back and see what happened to you, yes. Sending you home, however, is not so simple. The way you came from was unexpected and possibly the only smart thing Vesk did was seal it. The way is closed and will remain so.”  
  
I felt a surge of indignation as I spotted what looked like pity. “Why? You’re gods, aren’t you? If you opened it, surely you can reopen it?”  
  
Trissiny covered her mouth at my words, which I supposed made sense since I was back-talking her literal patron deity, but I needed answers.  
  
“We are that, yes, but it was not our doing that opened the path. The door was opened from your side. Judging the potential threat of leaving that route accessible Vesk sealed it. Not permanently, but not easily undone either. As unjust as your situation is we cannot risk our world by re-connecting with yours,” she stated.  
  
I felt that sinking sensation in my gut growing, threatening to spread. Reflexively I tried to push it off into my bugs and my head lanced with pain, sending me doubled over grasping at my eye.  
  
“What has been done to you is unacceptable. I cannot return you home, but I can answer your questions.” Avei raised a hand and a golden light showered over me, the pain in my head receding nearly instantaneously.  
  
Avei spoke as I recovered, “The door was only opened for moments and so our view of your world is similarly limited. You were tossed through the door with two gunshot wounds to the head, moments from death. Vesk and Vemnesthis repaired what damage they could and left the rest. You were then left with Arachne to recuperate as, unfortunately, she is likely the best person in this world to understand your situation. We believe that Scion was defeated prior to your arrival.”  
  
I processed what I was hearing, my mind racing. I had been shot and nearly killed. But thrown through a door to another dimension instead of being left to bleed out. Clearly whoever had shot me hadn’t intended to kill me. But they had intended to cripple and isolate me and succeeded at it amazingly well. There were few capes I could think of who were capable of such and I had a bad feeling it was the worst one.  
  
The more immediate concern was her last sentence, which I latched onto. “Scion was defeated? Do you know if my friends survived? Tattletale? Grue? Golem?”  
  
Avei frowned slightly. “We believe so, but you must understand we only got the briefest glimpse into your world. I cannot speak to your friends, but if they were alive when you left, they likely are still alive from what we know. This is a sensitive topic that involves secrets the Pantheon does not want to become known. Arachne likely already knows some of it, but you are not to share this.”  
  
There was a good chance they had survived then. A small victory, but a victory nonetheless. If Scion was defeated then they could take care of themselves. I would’ve preferred to be there, but they had gotten along for years without me. They could survive. Thrive even.  
  
“I wasn’t intending to anyway,” I answered. “Though Trissiny deserves to know.”  
  
“Of course. You can consider her as good as me for these purposes,” Avei answered and I swear I saw Trissiny glow a little.  
  
“Is there no way for me to return home?” I asked, checking one more time.  
  
Avei shook her head slowly. “Not at this time. While Scion may be dead, your home contains threats that could do immense damage to our world. It may be possible in the future, but at the moment it is the lives of potentially millions against your own injustice.”  
  
It was shitty, but it was a calculation I had made on my own often enough. I had killed, based on that logic and for smaller stakes at that. As much as I hated hearing it, it was something I could understand. If something like Scion got to this world, could the gods here contain him? I could already believe we had won, as Avei seemed to think we had. He had been unstoppable, only the strongest powers managing to even distract him. His own lack of strategy had bought us more time than any of our own efforts.  
  
I looked her in the eyes and gave a single nod. It was the best I could do, given the crushing disappointment. “Thank you.”  
  
Avei nodded in return. “It is no more than you deserve in recompense. Do not let this dampen your spirits. With time and fortune, perhaps you may return home yet. For now, rest and recover." She gave me a curious look and smiled cryptically. “Go in peace Taylor Hebert.”  
  
With a flash of golden light, soft as she came she went. The room was silent and slowly the sounds of the world drifted back in, the soft creak of wood and the faint hum of pipes. There was a sense of distortion, like we were still partly in a bubble, separated from the world proper.  
  
“Your name isn’t Weaver?” Trissiny asked, breaking the atmosphere.


	11. Chapter 10

### Chapter 10

  
  
“That’s actually convenient, because having two Weavers was kinda a pain in the ass,” Ruda said flippantly.  
  
I wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to that. I had expected a bit more outrage or surprise at revealing a part of my multitude of secrets.  
  
“Ruda! Be nice, Taylor’s being very brave sharing with us,” Fross reprimanded.  
  
“Alright, alright, don’t get your pixie panties in a twist,” Ruda retorted.  
  
Fross hovered uncertainly, fidgeting. “That doesn’t make any sense. We don’t wear any and if we did, why would we twist them?”  
  
“Don’t worry about it Fross,” Teal said reassuringly. “Taylor why don’t you continue?”  
  
We sat in one of the group study areas. Several plush chairs with a long couch, a few end tables and a cozy, though currently unlit, fireplace tactically set into a quiet corner. One of a surprisingly large number of nearly perfect spots for a small group to relax and work together. Together with the general late medieval feeling of the stone walls, it felt almost like some of the old universities I had seen pictures of. Modern comfort in storied history.  
  
The whole class was scattered among the seats. I had gathered them together with Trissiny after our meeting with Avei. Trissiny had been rather patient with me, given everything that had happened in the last hour, and was waiting with the rest for a proper explanation.  
  
I sighed, looking down at the mug of hot chocolate Toby had foisted onto me. “I suppose there’s no good way to explain this. I’m not from this world. I was, apparently, thrown into this dimension like this”-I gestured to my missing limb and then my whole self-”and found by the gods. They couldn’t return me safely and so they left me here, with Tellwyrn. And then I met you guys.”  
  
Trissiny looked like she was about to say something when Gabe stood up, pointing at Ruda.  
  
“Hah! I totally win the pool. Pay up, Ruda,” Gabe said triumphantly.  
  
Ruda scoffed, point back. “Bullshit! There’s no way you got that fairly.”  
  
“Guessed what?” Juniper asked, tilting her head in what I assumed was confusion.  
  
“We had a pool going on what dark and broody’s backstory was,” Ruda said, now jabbing her thumb towards me. “Gabe, some-fucking-how, put interdimensional traveller into the pool.”  
  
I furrowed my brow. “There was a betting pool?”  
  
“I didn’t know about the pool…” Fross said dejectedly.  
  
Ruda held her hands up, trying to shush everyone. “It was just me, Gabe, Rafe, and a few others. Geez, calm down. Besides, it’s over now. And I’m out a doubloon.”  
  
“Wait,” Trissiny said, her voice lowering. “Professor Rafe was in on this too?”  
  
“Oh yeah, totally. He’s gonna be disappointed she’s not actually a high elf in disguise to assess his potential as a mate,” Ruda mentioned, snickering.  
  
I hadn’t been sure my respect for the alchemy professor could get any lower, but here we were. Scrapping the bottom of that barrel. The sad part was that he wasn’t even in the top five worst teachers I’d ever had. I sighed internally, there had to be a school somewhere that wasn’t half-filled with incompetent jackasses.  
  
“Okay, so moving past that, I didn’t even know there other dimensions that weren’t, well, Hell and all that,” Teal interjected tentatively.  
  
“I’m very curious about that as well, if you’d be okay with sharing more Taylor,” Toby added on.  
  
I rolled my head, cracking my neck as I took a second to think it over. I wasn’t really the sharing type, but my classmates, and wasn’t that a weird idea, had put up with me so far and in their place I certainly would want answers. Trissiny, at the very least, deserved them and I supposed it would be bad for team relationships to have an uneven distribution of information. Avei had asked me not to share too much, but I assumed that was more around the state of the gods here. And if not? Well, they weren’t able to help me anyway.  
  
“You don’t have to share, we will also respect your privacy,” Shaeine said, obviously noticing my slight hesitation.  
  
I raised my hand, waving dismissively. “No, it makes sense. It’s just...hard to figure out where to start. My world is nothing like yours. There’s no magic, no non-humans. We have powers, but it doesn’t work anything like the magic here. We were further ahead in technology by a couple of centuries from what I’ve seen here.”  
  
“There were no Dryads?” Juniper asked, sounding horrified.  
  
I shook my head. “Nope. There are animals and everything, but the only sapient thing on the planet is humans. Or, well, I guess whatever Scion was. We were fighting him when I ended up here.”  
  
“Like the heir to a house?” Toby leaned forward, placing his head on his interlaced fingers.  
  
“No, his name was Scion. Though, I guess that was just what we named him. He was an entity, an alien that had come to our world. He was the source of all our powers and...well, it’s a long story, but he started to destroy everything, so we fought back. My last memory is we were losing and everyone was starting to fragment. Apparently we won, at least according to Avei,” I said, finishing the short summary of what had happened.  
  
Ruda threw her hands up again. “What?! She didn’t tell you how you won or anything?”  
  
I shook my head. She hadn’t, though she had been relatively straightforward and only answered what I had asked directly. Perhaps I could’ve asked more, but just knowing Scion was dead had been a shock.  
  
“That’s bullshit! She can’t just leave out the juiciest part. Also you fought a god? That’s badass!” she exclaimed in equal parts outrage and excitement.  
  
Trissiny scowled so hard even I could see it. “Ruda, it’s not our place to judge the gods. Avei had her reasons for saying as much as she did.”  
  
“The gods often work in often unfathomable ways. If Avei did not volunteer more information, I would assume she had good purpose for it,” Toby helpfully supplied.  
  
Ruda snorted, flapping her hand at them and leaning back in the plush leather chair she had claimed, her legs swinging up onto the armrest. Fross was visibly vibrating in the air with barely contained excitement.  
  
“This is amazing! How did you fight him? Did your magic keep working after he died? What system did he use to organize his magic? Which school would you say was the most comparable? We’ll need to make a chart-”  
  
“Fross, breathe. You’ll have plenty of time to ask Taylor to share later. If she wants to,” Toby said, gesturing for the pixie to stop zipping around my head.  
  
I shrugged. “I don’t know a lot of those answers, but I’ll trade you if you help me learn about magic here. Sound fair?”  
  
“Oh yes! That’s perfect! I would’ve done that anyway if you asked, but this will be such an amazing opportunity,” she declared, starting to flit around energetically again.  
  
“Did you have any powers yourself, Taylor?” Trissiny asked, presumably calmer now that holy outrage was no longer radiating off her.  
  
Ah. There was one of the questions I had been dreading. Not as bad as asking if I had been a war criminal or anything that touched on my past too directly, but still bad. I reached out for my power tentatively, knowing what would happen, and felt that strange half-emptiness. I let go, the splitting pain of reaching for it slowly ebbing away as I did. Still gone. It probably always would be. I couldn’t count on getting my powers back, so I’d have to make do.  
  
“I controlled insects,” I answered, fully prepared for a mix of disappointment and confusion.  
  
“Well that’s kind of neat? Did you help clean people’s houses out or something with it?” Gabe asked.  
  
Shaeine looked over at Gabe, “Such a power would be terrifying and not used on such paltry tasks.” Her tone was as even as ever, yet I somehow got the sense she was a bit on edge.  
  
“Well it’s just some bugs, how bad can it get? Sure it’d be creepy and gross, but it’s not like throwing fireballs around or half the stuff we’ve seen Tellwyrn do already. Not to be mean to Taylor or anything,” he quickly amended onto the end.  
  
Shaeine looked at him with a diplomatic mask of blankness. Or maybe that was the face blindness.  
  
“It was far from the strongest power in my world, but I made it work. We didn’t get to pick our powers though. It wasn’t like magic here. Some people had them, most didn’t, and what power you got was basically random,” I said, not bothering to elaborate on Cauldron or the theories of who got what. That was just a lot of detail that would bog us down.  
  
“That sounds blatantly unfair,” Trissiny judged disapprovingly.  
  
“Yeah I mean, life ain’t fair and all, but that does sound kinda bullshit. You get stuck with bugs and what, some dick gets teleportation or fireballs?” Ruda begrudgingly agreed.  
  
“One power was literally to get any three other powers at once and another was knowing how to win any situation. Fireballs weren’t too bad by comparison.” Though I did recall how much I hated fire based powers given what they did to my swarms. Still, better that than someone like Eidolon, against whom victory was basically impossible.  
  
Juniper raised her hand, speaking up, “Sorry, I’m really confused. Was this Scion a god or does your world have no gods? How does that work?”  
  
“As fascinating as it must be to learn that not only are your various gods, or relatives in some cases, entirely optional for the existence of life, but in fact never existed in some worlds, Ms. Hebert will have to entertain the rest of your questions later,” Tellwyrn said, having appeared from thin air, lounging next to Gabriel. Gabriel, for his part, only realized belatedly that Tellwyrn was there and scrambled to make room before toppling off the edge of the couch.  
  
“Office, now,” Tellwyrn stated. In the blink of an eye I was no longer seated in a cozy corner chair but was now seated across from her desk. Tellwyrn hadn’t even changed position, legs thrown up over the side of her chair instead of the couch now.  
  
I snorted, glaring at her. “Would it kill you to actually ask for once?”  
  
“No, but many things that annoy me won’t kill me. It doesn’t mean I tolerate them any more. Now, let’s get this out of the way. I am not your enemy here. I am trying to juggle about twenty five different balls, several of which aren’t entirely in this dimension. Your problem is unfortunate and I mishandled it, but ultimately I can’t dedicate as much time to it as you deserve,” she stated, somehow turning a brusque remark into a half-assed apology.  
  
“Unfortunately, there are very few people other than me who could help you in any meaningful manner. You seek to return home, which given your presence here after talking to Avei I surmise the Pantheon were predictably unwilling to do for you. That means either changing their mind, and good luck with that, or doing it without them, which might be tantamount to picking a fight depending on how serious they are about keeping that connection closed,” she surmised rapid fire. “In short, you need hitherto unknown levels of portal magic and enough firepower and cleverness to punch out a god or two if need be. Anything less is asking for catastrophic failure.”  
  
Well wasn’t that just a cheery summary of my situation. I wasn’t nearly on as much of a timetable as before, but when she laid it out that way, it didn’t sound particularly better. My friends might be safe-ish, but my chances of seeing them were no better than before. She had a point though. If the gods were as worried as Avei had claimed about the threats to their world from mine, I couldn’t see them re-opening whatever portal had brought me here. I didn’t know how powerful the gods were, but some S-class threats might be enough to worry even them. What Endbringers were left, if they started acting again, were one such example. Avei had made vague reassurances it might change, but the implication there was it might not as well.  
  
I nodded, my lips thinning as I frowned. “Okay, so if you’re not willing to help and there’s almost no one else who can, what am I supposed to do?”  
  
Tellwyrn kicked her legs over the arm and back onto the ground, leaning back as she reached over for a small pastry to gnaw on. “The mature thing to do would be to accept your fate, move on, heal, and enjoy life here.” She kept talking even with her mouth full of pastry. “Having spent a grand total of fifteen minutes with you, I can safely say that the sun would burn out before that happens. Lucky for you, you’re at literally the most advanced school in the world, fuck the high elves if they say otherwise, and there’s nowhere better for you to get those skills. If you grow up in the meantime and calm down, even better.”  
  
This woman couldn’t go two sentences without insulting me. It wasn’t particularly effective, I had dealt with more creative and constant verbal abuse, but it certainly set the tone for our relationship. Despite apologies for her actions, she was wholly unapologetic for her personality.  
  
“Fine. I get it. I need skills and this is the best place to get them. You said that before, so what’s the point of this?” I asked pointedly.  
  
“The point is threefold. The first is that this is a long term goal for you, it will require patience. The second is that because it’s long term, I very well might be in a better position to help you by the time you’re closer to being ready. The third is that as you’ll require my school to do this, we will need to not have a repeat of today. We’ve been over why, it was partly my fault, so no, I’m not blaming you. Just don’t make a habit out of summoning gods to my campus and generally try not to be too disruptive.” She finished off the pastry neatly, crumbs disappearing with a wave of her hand. “You’re going here for free and I want to make clear that this request isn’t connected to that, but given your singular status as a dimensional traveler from such a foreign reality, I would greatly appreciate if you’d be willing to entertain questions from some of the staff. Poor Yornhaldt might actually have a heart attack if you hold out on him.”  
  
That seemed reasonable enough I supposed. Patience was nothing new to me and while I wasn’t head over heels for this woman’s help, she did seem to be a force to be reckoned with here at least. Following the rules wouldn’t be too hard either, I had worked under more laborious restrictions during my time in the Wards. And frankly, I had already taken a liking to Professor Yornhaldt, so fielding some questions seemed reasonable as well. Overall she was being distressingly reasonable for someone who was such an asshole and it left me feeling very conflicted.  
  
“Sure. Also, what happened to my stuff? My costume, whatever parts of my kit survived,” I enquired. “I could use that back.”  
  
Tellwyrn waved her hand lazily and a medium sized brown satchel floated over, plopping down on the desk. “What survived is in there. Your costume, as you call it, wasn’t more than a few pieces of armor held together by something that might’ve once been a fabric before it was covered with so much blood and dust. Your gadgets are also in there. I took a quick look to make sure it wasn’t anything dangerous. I’d recommend keeping those discreet, as while they’re mostly an academic curiosity here, there are many hands outside that would gladly kill for that technology.”  
  
“Thanks. Anything else?” I asked, keeping my answers brief as I grabbed the satchel. No need to get into again with her twice in the same day.  
  
“Just that I’ll likely be asking you some questions myself once I’ve wrapped up this Elilial business. I’m sure you’ll have enough of that from your classmates. Congrats on that, I was prepared to watch them tear each other apart, but you’ve managed to distract them all enough to disarm most of the building tension there. No, that’s all. I’ll see you in class on Friday. There’s homework due, which I had intended to make you exempt from, but it might be interesting to see your take on it. Ask your classmates for it and give it a shot.”  
  
I shrugged and got up out of the chair. Great, homework. Well I could do schoolwork. Schoolwork had never been a problem for me, it had been my classmates destroying all my hard work or stealing it that had been the issue. I presumed that wouldn’t be a problem here.  
  
I left Tellwyrn’s office mulling over what had happened. It was only late in the afternoon and I had already had an eventful day. We still had Rafe’s class, which I supposed must be starting soon, but…  
  
Wait, I usually followed my classmates to class. Fuck, which way was the lecture from here?  
  
  



	12. Chapter 11

###  Chapter 11 

I huffed as I jogged down the stairs alongside Trissiny. The swinging of my good arm was throwing off my gait as I ran, veering me subtly but consistently to the opposite side. I was debating getting a weight or prosthetic of some kind just to balance out the sides, but I hadn’t come up with an idea that I liked yet.

Trissiny spoke in short bursts between her barely labored huffs, “What Avei said...secrets that the Pantheon didn’t want to come out. Are you sure it was okay to share with the class?”

My breathing was a bit harder than hers, but years of cape work and exercise helped me keep pace. “I figure she meant sharing the fact that the gods apparently have doorways to other dimensions that contain threats they aren’t sure they could contain. And if not...well, it’s not like she can get me back anyway.”

Trissiny looked away, back down the stairs, displeased I sensed. “I suppose that’s the most important part at least. Have you considered which cult you might want to join?”

I nearly missed a step, almost falling. “Cult? I don’t really do cults.”

“You don’t worship any god?” Trissiny asked, even though I know she had to have figured it out from my story before.

“No...my world didn’t have gods, not real ones. The closest things we ever had to them we killed,” I replied, thinking of Scion, and before him the Endbringers. Not really gods, but the closest thing I could think of. Nigh-immortal, limitless monsters full of destruction. They certainly would’ve fit in with the various deities of Greek mythos easily enough. Cults had sprung up around them after all.

Trissiny was, annoyingly, still barely winded while talking this much. “Would you consider joining a cult here? Every god has a cult, including Avei.”

Would I consider joining a cult? My knee-jerk reaction was of course not. I wasn’t about to put myself under the authority of some strange extradimensional deity on another world. My secondary reaction was a definite no, because I might have to come into conflict with them if I wanted to go home later. I had freed Lung and Shadow Stalker knowing they could be a problem later, because they had been helpful in the now, but this was different. It wasn’t so easy to undo things with gods, whereas those two I was pretty sure I could handle if need be. Things weren’t so desperate that I needed to be friendly with them right now either.

Past that was another no, because the bastards had still been part of why I was stuck here. I didn’t know who had thrown me into this dimension, though I had suspicions for just about everyone from Dinah to Marquis, but I wasn’t entirely absolving the gods here of being part of that.

“...I don’t think so,” I replied much less strongly than I felt about it.

“Ah,” she said simply and went back to running.

Shit. Now I felt like an asshole, because clearly her religion was important to her and she had clearly asked because she wanted to share that. In Bet it was one thing, but I had literally talked to her god here. It was kind of understandable that she felt strongly about it, given she was the literal paladin of a talking god.

“But, it would be good for me to learn about them all. Since I’m living here, it only makes sense,” I offered after a moment.

Trissiny seemed to perk up at that pretty easily. “Of course. I’d be happy to teach you about Avei and I know a fair bit about the rest. Toby would be better to tell you about Omnu, being his paladin and all.”

That caught my attention. “Right, I remember hearing that. He’s so...slender and quiet though.”

“Well, he is the Hand of Omnu. Omnism is a very peaceful cult, focused around non-violence, agriculture, and the sun,” she explained. “Hands of Omnu reflect that. They’re not as focused on combat training as a Hand of Avei would be.”

“Geez, who else is a paladin in the class?” I asked, feeling like I really needed to get to know my classmates better.

“No one. We’re the first two Hands to be called in decades. None of the other gods have called a Hand yet,” she stated as we hit a flat section between winding portions.

I looked to her, frowning. “Can’t you just ask them?”

She shook her head. “It’s rare for them to answer that directly and they don’t tend to share all that much with their followers. Some gods are more accessible than others, but none of them tend to answer big questions like that.”

“That seems wrong. They’re gods, right?” I asked rhetorically. “It’s not like they can’t find the time to answer some questions. So keeping everyone in the dark has to be deliberate.”

“The gods manage our entire world while safeguarding us from Elilial and demonic invasion. They’ve faced great challenges to protect us. If they determine it’s not our place to know more, then it’s for our own good,” she stated resolutely.

I let the conversation drop there, not willing to antagonize her any further when it was clear she felt so strongly about it. I wasn’t sure I bought that the gods were as beneficial as she claimed, but it was also clear I knew frighteningly little of this world’s history and needed to learn more. I’d have to find time to drop by the library in between classes.

\---

“It’s called prosopagnosia among the dwarves, though we’ve known it just as face blindness,” Miss Sunrunner explained. “It’s quite rare, usually only after surviving some serious head trauma, which makes sense given the state you were in. I’m afraid, treatment wise, that there’s little I can do for you.”

“Little or nothing?” I asked, figuring I might as well check.

The elf shaman and resident medical specialist leaned against the window sill as she spoke with me. I sat on the edge of one of the cots, trying not to mess up the blanket on it too much since it looked so pristine.

“Nothing might be better than a little,” she answered. “Theoretically we could use magic to speed up your natural healing, as that’s rather standard, but given how the brain heals slowly, if at all, that probably wouldn’t be worthwhile. Otherwise we’re left with exotic and untested treatments, which could just as easily cause more problems as fix them. The brain is a complicated thing I’m afraid.”

Yeah, I wasn’t thrilled about that from her description. If I was going to mess around with my brain, I needed better assurances than just as likely to harm as to heal. It was a shame I didn’t have Panacea or Scapegoat here, either of them would’ve been able to help me with this.

“I’ll pass. Is there no one more advanced I could go to?” I tried.

The elf put a hand to her chin in thought. “Well, a green dragon might be able to help you. I’d probably recommend against divine magic, given the nature of the injury and what you’ve told me. Infernal magic wouldn’t be terribly helpful. Arcane could, in theory, help, but I don’t know of anyone with both the required expertise in medicine and arcane prowess to do so. A light touch was never Arachne’s specialty.”

That sounded a lot like a no. I wasn’t terribly surprised. Brain surgery in Bet was still a big deal with only a small number of specialists worldwide. If you couldn’t get one of the few capes with powers that could treat a head injury, you had to wait for one of the few surgeons who could. A few centuries back tech wise and I seriously doubted anyone here had the knowledge to help me. Oh well, I can live with this. It’s not worse than being blind.

I got up from the cot, giving the nurse a small smile. “I think I’ll leave it be for now then. Thanks for the information.”

Miss Sunrunner gave me a nod. “Of course. A green dragon might be able to regrow your arm as well, if you ever decide you want to pursue that line of action. I’m happy to treat you here, but there’s a limit to what I can do.”

Green dragons, huh? I supposed they must be the kind of dragons that talked, not the giant angry lizard kind. If they did healing magic for non-dragons, they must be at least a bit friendly. Wasn’t that an odd thought? That I could go try and find a dragon to receive healing. It really was like a fantasy novel. It was almost too good to be true. I don’t trust it.

“Are there many...dragons around?” I asked, pausing in my exit.

She laughed lightly. “No, they’ve always been a rare species, but even more so these days. A few exist though. I’m sure at least one of the professors here could point you in the right direction as well.”

Hmm, that was a thought. A new arm would be helpful and I’d at least have a chance to ask about healing my face blindness. On the other hand, I didn’t know what kind of price a dragon might ask for such extensive healing. Dragons were always characterized as being greedy and I had next to nothing at the moment. It was an option to keep in mind, but probably something I’d be better suited to pursuing later.

I bid Miss Sunrunner goodbye and headed back to my dorm. I needed to get some work done if I was going to keep up with all my classes. Everyone else was ahead of me and I needed to work twice as hard to catch up. Fortunately Fross was a huge help with everything magical so far and while I hadn’t asked Shaeine for help, she had been very approachable the first few days. I wanted to avoid relying on anyone too much, so I was holding off on asking her for anything just yet. I also needed to start that homework that Tellwyrn had assigned...

\---

The haggard looking man looked at me for a moment. He clearly expected some kind of reaction, but I couldn’t read his expression, so I just stood there, staring back. A small benefit to my condition I supposed.

“Creepy girl, aren’t you. Okay, what do you need?” Mr. Weaver asked.

I raised my eyebrows together in tired annoyance. “So if Rafe is the crazy jackass, I guess that makes you the old curmudgeon.”

“I don’t work in a library because I’m a people person,” the man replied smartly.

“But librarians are specifically for helping other people around a library. It’s a public facing job,” I snarked back, feeling a bit impatient.

The man grumbled. “Yeah, well, that wasn’t how it was sold to me. Anyway, what do you want?”

“I need books that explain everything. Basic concepts. Stuff you’d expect everyone to know. Not introductory books to subjects, but more basic than that,” I stated as my request.

The man shuffled around behind the desk for a moment, bending underneath to adjust something before coming back up. “Odd request for a university library, but I’m sure we have a few books that would cover that. This for some philosophy project or something?”

“Something like that. I’ll take whatever there is,” I said.

The man grunted and then made his way out from behind the desk, silently waving for me to follow. I followed him through the book stacks as he went from section to section, checking books that I assumed he thought might be appropriate. Occasionally he would hand one to me before moving on to the next section. By the end I had a stack nearly a dozen books tall that I balanced against my body with my one arm. If he had noticed my difficult, he made no mention of it.

“There you go. Try to have them back within a month,” he said almost with a shrug.

I left the desk a little annoyed. I had never met such an unenthusiastic librarian in my life. I was so used to the university here being over the top and ridiculous that the contrast was even more glaring. Whatever, it wasn’t important if the librarian was a rude, sarcastic man. In the future I’d just find the books I needed directly.

On my way out I saw what I could only described as a magical golem. Floating chunks of quartz drifting in what was a vaguely person-like shape, with a blue cloud binding it all together. At one side there was what looked like a half finished arm, made of crystal and metal, floating in unison with the rest. I tried not to stare as I passed, given that with how this world worked the golem very well might be another student and I was being rude.

I headed off to the cafeteria to grab lunch. I’d need to get some food before the next class and I could skim one of the books as I ate. The rest I shoved in my bag, helpfully loaned to me by Janis, like pretty much all of my personal possessions at the moment. I had gotten my armor back, but to say it was in disrepair was an understatement. The costume was more holes than fabric I hated to say, and most of the armor had been cracked, scorched, or dented. It was a lot more damage than I remembered, but if I had been tossed into this dimension against my will, I had probably put up a fight first. It was still a damn shame that it was in such poor shape, especially since I wouldn’t be able to repair it any time soon.

Time to read up on -I flipped the book over to its cover, having picked one at random to start with- _The History of the Empire: A Primer for Integrating into Imperial Society. Huh, I guess that could be interesting._


	13. Chapter 12

###  Chapter 12 

“But x is right here!” Fross said insistently, pointing at the x on the piece of paper I was using for our homework.

“Yeah, but when they say find x I think they mean in the equation. Like find what the value of it is,” I said, though I was feeling less certain the further we went into this.

We both looked at the alchemy homework assigned to us after Rafe’s last class. It involved converting quantities of reagents from one set of units into another, like dissolving x amount of grams into y liters and so forth. I hadn’t expected such practical homework from Rafe until he had boasted ‘it’s important to know if you’re about to handle something 22 centimeters or 22 millimeters’ because of course he had to go and make it weird.

“So he wants us to solve the equation for the amount we’d have in grams?” Fross asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”

“I’m not sure I get why he wrote it out in a big paragraph, but okay. I can do that!” Fross sounded determined as she flitted back over to her copy of the homework.

I stared down at my own, reading off the next problem. If I had three leaves of ragweed and wanted to make a deodorizing potion after being doused with werewolf urine, then following the ratio given below how many milliliters of sulfuric acid would I need to dissolve the ragweed in? What was up with these questions. The last one had been about making a failed potion of anti-death, and now there was werewolf urine neutralizer. I was really hoping that these weren’t real examples.

Fross and I were the only ones given math homework, because apparently I had messed up a few measurements and wasn’t up to snuff. I had thought I had gotten them all correct, so it was a bit frustrating, but considering the homework others got, I’d take a few worksheets. It felt a bit weird that they used the same units for measuring here as at home, it wasn’t really a system that you’d expect to spontaneously evolve twice.

Shaeine walked into the room, quiet as ever. She always seemed careful not to make too much noise or disrupt us and I was starting to feel a bit guilty over how thoughtful she was. I had taken extra precautions this morning to not make any noise when I slipped out for my daily exercise with Trissiny.

“Fross, did you still want to practice your reading tonight?” she asked, sitting herself down on her bed across the room, straight-backed and expectant.

Fross streaked up from her paper, humming. “Oh! Yeah, that’d be great. I can finish this later, since you probably want to go to sleep soon?”

“That would be preferable. We have Professor Ezzaniel’s class in the morning and I find it best to be well rested for that,” she replied.

I looked up, distracted from my homework by my own curiosity with what they were talking about. Reading was always one of my favorite hobbies, so I found myself naturally interested.

“Reading practice?” I asked, hoping for elaboration.

Fross, never one to shy from helpfully providing more detail, immediately clarified. “Shaeine has been helping me practice! I’m just fine at the actual reading part, but all these weird things like subtext and a lot of your metaphors are difficult for me.”

Shaeine nodded. “Fross has made good progress. I only regret that I’m not more familiar with Imperial literature.”

“I know we don’t have a literature class, but I think it’s important to study on my own. Ever since I got here I’ve been quickly realizing that I read things differently from other people,” Fross said with a hint of worry.

Oh, that sounded like the part that a lot of students at Winslow had struggled with. Critical reading as it had been called, a sort of broad category that just basically meant reading more than the literal meaning of the text. I supposed it would be hard for other species to pick up on all the human cultural references and literary styles. Plenty of humans had issues doing it and they didn’t even have the excuse of being from a completely different culture and species.

“Would you mind if I joined in? I love reading, but I don’t know if the books here are similar enough to back home for me to get as much,” I explained.

Fross twirled in the air energetically. “Oh! Of course! You’re human too, even if you’re from different humans. Maybe you can help!”

“We’ll see. Hopefully I’m not entirely out of my depth as well,” I said, worried that all the books here would have completely alien cultural references and styles. “What book are you reading?”

Shaeine held up a fairly thin book with a green cover, bound in that more old-fashioned style that I would only see in used book shops back on Bet. “The Pauper and the Prince.”

I got up, putting my homework for Alchemy away and moving over to get a look at the book. I was excited to see whether the book was similar to the one that it reminded me of, just with the title reversed.

\---

“Wow. I, uh, didn’t expect that,” I said, looking down at the book with a lot of mixed feelings.

“What part?” Shaeine asked.

“Well, uh...the book it reminded me of was a lot more egalitarian,” I answered, looking for a way to explain how the book was not just not similar, but almost entirely different and frankly not nearly as good.

Fross took the opportunity to flitter about a bit. “Well it was written by an Imperial advisor, right? You told me the intent of the author is important. Wouldn’t a guy like that want to promote nobility?”

I groaned trying to find the words to explain my disappointment with the writing. “It’s not always important, but yeah, it makes sense. It’s just...how to put it...heavy handed. It’s just thinly veiled propaganda.”

“I would agree with that assessment, though given the target audience it’s probably written at the appropriate level,” Shaeine responded, hefting the book slightly like she was judging its worth.

My shoulders drooped as I shook my head. “Let me tell you, this Farid guy is no Mark Twain. That was about as subtle as Animal Farm.”

“Wait, don’t tell me,” Fross said excitedly. “Is that one called Animal Farm but not actually about an animal farm?”

“Yeah,” I said with a smile. “Well, actually it is about an animal farm, all the characters are animals. But it’s still a metaphor. The farm bit isn’t important. Here let me explain…”

\---

I sat down at the cafeteria table next to Trissiny. She gave me a friendly touch on the shoulder, something we had agreed on once I had explained that I had trouble reading her expressions. I smiled back and set down by stack of books and papers. The group was discussing the homework we had due next period.

“It’s gotta be a trap somehow,” Gabe was saying.

“Okay, say it is. What do we do about it then?” Teal asked in return.

“We could refuse to do it. She can’t fail us all,” he offered.

Ruda snorted. “Oh you think that, do you? That lady doesn’t give a fuck, I bet she’d fail us in a flat second if she thought we deserved it.”

“I don’t like the assignment any more than you guys, but I don’t want to start the class with a bad mark…” Teal said, shirking back and focusing on her food more.

“It does seem rather counter productive,” Toby weighed in. “If we’re supposed to be a class, why have us think of how to fight each other?”

“On the other hand, it could be that Tellwyrn wants to teach us a lesson about being prepared. While I don’t think any of you would turn on the rest of us, being prepared for any confrontation is a virtue. We may not be blessed with such teammates in the future,” Shaeine proposed, the group seeming to mollify a bit at that idea.

“It still seems needlessly antagonistic,” Trissiny opined, digging into her food as she listened attentively to the rest.

Ruda leaned forward on the table, voice incredulous, “Needlessly antagonistic? That’s rich coming from you, Shiny Boots.”

I had just gotten back up, since I had set my books down but still hadn’t gotten food. Carrying everything usually took up my one hand and my bag could only hold so much. On the bright side, I was getting really good at balancing things one handed. And at catching things I dropped from balancing them one handed. I paused though. Hearing Ruda take a pot-shot at the person who had called down their personal god to help me? Oh, I wasn’t standing for that.

“Says the girl who takes verbal pot-shots at everyone because she’s too insecure to play nice?” I said, cocking my eyebrow at her. Trissiny was bent forward, looking ready to defend herself, looking at me as I spoke.

“Excuse me?” Ruda said in a tone that sounded more like someone angling for a fight than a clarification.

I tried to cross my arms, annoyed when that simple gesture didn't work, but I didn’t let it faze me. “You’re excused. I’m gonna go get some food, be right back,” I said, directing the latter half to the group.

I walked away from the table, denying the pirate princess a chance to reply or retaliate. I had always found that forcing an end to a conversation and denying closure to be one of the more effective tactics for forcing people to work together. It was annoying, that even on a completely different world in a foreign dimension that people were just as petty and willing to fight for dominance as on Bet. It had always been a pet peeve of mine, growing over the years as I had seen so many problems amplified or gone unfixed because people just couldn’t cooperate.

I went up to the area where the food was served, Mrs. Oak serving what looked like something resembling roast beef and some sort of vegetable medley. The woman was like one big, grumpy oak stump. She didn’t speak, just grunting acknowledgements, and if she had been in a forest I could’ve lost her among the trees for her appearance. All stumpy, with wiry brown hair and thick arms that matched her cylindrical build. Her perpetual frown made me think she was probably just one of those chronically unhappy people. Actually, now that I thought about it, she had an uncanny resemblance to one of the cafeteria ladies at Winslow. Wow, that was weird.

I got a generous helping of the meal, gave her my thanks, and got the same indistinct grunt that I always got. Well, at least she was a better cook than the ones at Winslow. The food here was pretty good, given that it was cafeteria food. Magical university or no, I was pretty sure there was no magic in the kitchen, so good food was appreciated.

Heading back to the table with my plate in hand and utensils carefully pinched to the underside of the plate with my ring and pinky finger, I saw Teal getting up. Her shoulders pushed up and in, actions a bit hastier than normal.

“I’m just gonna go. I’ll see you all in class,” she said in a teary voice, rapidly walking away from the table.

Trissiny looked back and forth, settling on my face for a second as if she were lost. She muttered, “I didn’t mean to upset her…”

I put my food down carefully, putting my hand on her shoulder. I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t even seen what had sent Teal off. It felt disingenuous to say anything, but I still wanted to give her some sort of comfort. I noticed Shaeine slip away to follow Teal. Good that at least someone was watching after her as well.

“I’m sure you can work it out and make things right,” I offered.

“Oh yeah, she’s real good at making things right,” Ruda snarked. “That’d be why the only friend she’s made is the one who needed her to straight up speak to her god. Or are you friends with her because of her charming personality of righteousness?”

“Hey guys, there’s no need to fight,” Fross said, trying to quickly disarm things.

Trissiny tensed underneath my hand and I squeezed her shoulder reassuringly before looking over at Ruda.

“Do you have a fucking problem with me?” I asked, turning my body to face her.

I had seen a bit of Ruda’s street savviness in her answers in class and how she fought in Ezzaniel's martial arts course. She read my body language and got up, too well practiced to ball up her fists, but I could see her legs tense and twist slightly.

“I’m a bit pissed off when Trissiny sticks her foot in her mouth again and you’re there backing her up. Maybe she should be upset, since she’s been a jackass,” Ruda replied, all the weight in the sentences on her cursing.

I rolled my shoulder. “You sure you aren’t pissed because I interrupted your whole mean girls bullshit?”

“I don’t even know what that means,” Ruda exclaimed. “But it sounds like you’re calling me a bitch.”

“Ruda-” Trissiny started.

“Cause I am,” I replied, staring her down. “Or is there another word you prefer for someone whose only backbone is making snarky comments to hurt people?”

“Taylor!-” Trissiny tried again, sounding upset.

Ruda cracked her knuckles. “You think I’m the one without a spine here? Listen, if it wouldn’t make me look like shit to beat on a cripple, I’d be happy to throw down with you.”

“Guys, stop!” Fross said, trying to flutter between us.

I knew how this game was played. “I’d offer to fight you with one hand tied behind my back, but that might be a bit too condescending even for you.”

“Oh it is on-” Ruda started, her body weight shifting to her front foot. I saw the shift and didn’t bother to wait. The fastest way to handle someone who was better equipped and aggressive was to strike preemptively. I stepped forward, feinting my weight towards the side of my good arm like I was going to swing and instead kicked at her leg from the side, taking it and all the weight she had on it out.

Ruda growled as her leg went and and twisted, catching herself. And now’s my chance to swing.

\---

“I was hoping for a bit more battle damage, you know maybe some torn clothes. Risque, but not trashy, right?” Gabe said from the side.

“Gabe. Shut up,” Toby said tiredly.

Despite being shorter than both of us, Mrs. Oak had both Ruda and I dangling in the air. Her notably buff arms were more than capable of holding each of us by our collars and separated. Toby and Trissiny had healed the both of us already, despite neither of us actually wanting that. It had been about fifteen minutes since the fight. Well, it had been a bit short-lived to call it a fight. I hadn’t expected the rest of the class to get involved quite so quickly. It had made things a bit more chaotic than I was prepared for. Everyone yelling at everyone else. I suppose it had been a bit naive to not expect two paladins to get involved in stopping a fight.

Without a sound or signal, Tellwyrn appeared.

“Office. _Again._”


End file.
